THE 

UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

THE  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

BY 

ELIHU  ROOT 


COLLECTED  AND  EDITED  BY 


CAMBRIDGE 
HARVARD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

LONDON:  HUMPHREY  MILFOBD 
OXTOBD  UNIVERSITY  PBESS 

1918 


COPYRIGHT,  1918 
HARVARD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 


CONTENTS 

PAQB 

INTRODUCTORY  NOTE N vii 

THE  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 1 

THE  ENSLAVEMENT  OF  THE  BELGIANS 3 

An  Address  at  a  mass  meeting  in  New  York,  December  15, 
1916. 

AMERICA'S  PRESENT  NEEDS 11 

An  Address  at  the  Congress  of  Constructive  Patriotism,  held 
under  the  auspices  of  the  National  Security  League,  Washing- 
ton, January  25,  1917. 

AMERICA  ON  TRIAL 27 

An  Address  before  the  Union  League  Club,  New  York,  March 
20,  1917. 

THE  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WORLD  CRISIS 33 

An  Address  as  chairman  of  a  patriotic  mass  meeting,  Madison 
Square  Garden,  New  York,  March  22,  1917. 

THE  DUTY  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  IN  THE  WAR    .   .       39 
A  Speech  before  the  New  York  Republican  Club,  April  9, 1917. 

GERMANY,  RUSSIA,  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES 45 

An  Address  before  the  Union  League  Club,  New  York,  August 
15,  1917. 

A  FEDERATED  UNION  OF  THE  AMERICAN  BAR 57 

An  Address  at  the  special  conference  of  delegates  from  the 
American  Bar  Association,  and  delegates  from  state  and  local 
bar  associations,  Saratoga  Springs,  New  York,  September  3, 
1917. 

THE  AMERICAN  BAR  AND  THE  WAR 63 

Resolutions  of  the  American  Bar  Association,  Saratoga 
Springs,  New  York,  September  4,  1917. 

THE  WAR  AND  DISCUSSION 65 

An  Address  at  a  war  mass  meeting  in  the  Coliseum,  Chicago, 
September  14,  1917. 

JAPAN  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES 81 

An  Address  at  a  luncheon  in  honor  of  the  Imperial  Japanese 
Mission,  New  York,  October  1,  1917. 


iv  CONTENTS 

THE  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 87 

INTRODUCTORY  NOTE 89 

Letter  to  Charles  R.  Flint,  March  24,  1917. 
Letter  to  Augustus  Thomas,  April  17,  1917. 

ADDRESS  TO  THE  COUNCIL  OF  MINISTERS 98 

Petrograd,  June  15,  1917. 
REPLY  OF  THE  MINISTER  OF  FOREIGN  AFFAIRS 101 

ADDRESS  BEFORE   THE   RUSSIAN-AMERICAN   CHAMBER   OF 

COMMERCE 105 

Petrograd,  June  21,  1917. 

ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  SOCIAL  ASSOCIATED  COMMITTEES  OF 

Moscow,  June  22,  1917 109 

ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  Moscow  DUMA,  June  22,  1917.    .    .     Ill 

ADDRESS   BEFORE   THE   WAR   INDUSTRIES   COMMITTEE   AT 

Moscow,  June  23,  1917 117 

ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  ZEMSTVO  UNION  AT  Moscow,  June 

23,  1917 123 

ADDRESS  AT  THE  Moscow  PEOPLE'S  BANK,  June  23,  1917      125 

ADDRESS  AT  THE  MEETING  OF  THE  BOURSE  OF  Moscow, 

June  23,  1917 127 

ADDRESS  AT  A  LUNCHEON  GIVEN  BY  GENERAL  BRUSILOFF   .   .     130 
General  Staff  Headquarters,  "  Stafka,"  June  27,  1917. 

ADDRESS  AT  A  LUNCHEON  GIVEN  BY  THE  MINISTER  OF 

FOREIGN  AFFAIRS 132 

Petrograd,  July  4,  1917. 
ADDRESS  AT  A  LUNCHEON  OF  THE  AMERICAN  CLUB   .    .    .     136 

Petrograd,  July  6,  1917. 

ADDRESS  AT  A  MEETING  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  LIQUIDATION 

OF  THE  AFFAIRS  OF  POLAND 142 

Petrograd,  July  7,  1917. 

ADDRESS  BEFORE  A  LARGE  BODY  OF  RUSSIAN  SOLDIERS  .     145 
Perm,  July  13,  1917. 

ADDRESS  BEFORE  A  GATHERING  OF  SOLDIERS  AND  CITIZENS    .     147 
Nazuvaeskaya,  July  14,  1917. 

ADDRESS  AT  A  RECEPTION  BY  THE  CITY  OF  SEATTLE,  August 

4,1917    .    ,  149 


CONTENTS  v 

ADDRESS  AT  A  RECEPTION  BY  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK, 

August  15,  1917 154 

FAITH  IN  RUSSIA 161 

An  Address  at  a  reception  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  the 
State  of  New  York,  New  York,  August  15,  1917. 

SYMPATHY  WITH  RUSSIA 169 

An  Address  at  the  banquet  of  the  American  Bar  Association, 
Saratoga  Springs,  New  York,  September  7,  1917. 

POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 183 

THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1904 185 

An  Address  at  Buffalo,  New  York,  October  22, 1904. 

THE  DEMAGOGUE  IN  POLITICS 203 

An  Address  in  the  campaign  of  1906,  Utica,  New  York, 
November  1,  1906. 

THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1908 227 

An  Address  at  the  Republican  State  Convention,  Saratoga 
Springs,  New  York,  September  14,  1908. 

THE  NEW  YORK  STATE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1910 259 

An  Address  at  Manhattan  Casino,  New  York,  October  28, 
1910. 

THE  ACHIEVEMENT^  OF  REPUBLICAN  ADMINISTRATIONS  .   .     277 
An  Address  at  the  Republican  National  Convention,  Chicago, 
June  18,  1912. 

THE  RENOMINATION  OF  PRESIDENT  TAFT 297 

An  Address  as  chairman  of  the  Republican  National  Con- 
vention of  1912,  notifying  Mr.  Taft  of  his  nomination,  Wash- 
ington, August  1,1912. 

THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  IN  OPPOSITION 301 

An  Address  at  the  Republican  State  Convention,  Saratoga 
Springs,  New  York,  August  18,  1914. 

THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1916 323 

An  Address  at  a  public  meeting  held  under  the  direction  of  the 
Republican  Club,  New  York,  October  5,  1916. 

INDEX  .  351 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE 

THE  collected  addresses  and  state  papers  of  Elihu  Root,  of 
which  this  is  one  of  several  volumes,  cover  the  period  of  his 
service  as  Secretary  of  War,  as  Secretary  of  State,  and  as 
Senator  of  the  United  States,  during  which  time,  to  use  his 
own  expression,  his  only  client  was  his  country. 

The  many  formal  and  occasional  addresses  and  speeches, 
which  will  be  found  to  be  of  a  remarkably  wide  range,  are 
followed  by  his  state  papers,  such  as  the  instructions  to 
the  American  delegates  to  the  Second  Hague  Peace  Confer- 
ence and  other  diplomatic  notes  and  documents,  prepared 
by  him  as  Secretary  of  State  in  the  performance  of  his  duties 
as  an  executive  officer  of  the  United  States.  Although  the 
official  documents  have  been  kept  separate  from  the  other 
papers,  this  plan  has  been  slightly  modified  in  the  volume 
devoted  to  the  military  and  colonial  policy  of  the  United 
States,  which  includes  those  portions  of  his  official  reports  as 
Secretary  of  War  throwing  light  upon  his  public  addresses  and 
his  general  military  policy. 

The  addresses  and  speeches  selected  for  publication  are 
not  arranged  chronologically,  but  are  classified  in  such  a  way 
that  each  volume  contains  addresses  and  speeches  relating 
to  a  general  subject  and  a  common  purpose.  The  addresses 
as  president  of  the  American  Society  of  International  Law 
show  his  treatment  of  international  questions  from  the 
theoretical  standpoint,  and  in  the  light  of  his  experience  as 
Secretary  of  War  and  as  Secretary  of  State,  unrestrained  and 
uncontrolled  by  the  limitations  of  official  position,  whereas 
his  addresses  on  foreign  affairs,  delivered  while  Secretary  of 
State  or  as  United  States  Senator,  discuss  these  questions 
under  the  reserve  of  official  responsibility. 


viii  INTRODUCTORY  NOTE 

Mr.  Root's  addresses  on  government,  citizenship,  and 
legal  procedure  are  a  masterly  exposition  of  the  principles 
of  the  Constitution  and  of  the  government  established  by 
it;  of  the  duty  of  the  citizen  to  understand  the  Constitu- 
tion and  to  conform  his  conduct  to  its  requirements;  and 
of  the  right  of  the  people  to  reform  or  to  amend  the  Con- 
stitution in  order  to  make  representative  government  more 
effective  and  responsive  to  their  present  and  future  needs. 
The  addresses  on  law  and  its  administration  state  how  legal 
procedure  should  be  modified  and  simplified  in  the  interest 
of  justice  rather  than  in  the  supposed  interest  of  the  legal 
profession. 

The  addresses  delivered  during  the  trip  to  South  America 
and  Mexico  in  1906,  and  in  the  United  States  after  his  return, 
with  their  message  of  good  will,  proclaim  a  new  doctrine  — 
the  Root  doctrine  —  of  kindly  consideration  and  of  honorable 
obligation,  and  make  clear  the  destiny  common  to  the 
peoples  of  the  Western  World. 

The  addresses  and  the  reports  on  military  and  colonial 
policy  made  by  Mr.  Root  as  Secretary  of  War  explain  the 
reorganization  of  the  army  after  the  Spanish-American  War, 
the  creation  of  the  General  Staff,  and  the  establishment  of  the 
Army  War  College.  They  trace  the  origin  of  and  give  the 
reason  for  the  policy  of  this  country  in  Cuba,  the  Philippines, 
and  Porto  Rico,  devised  and  inaugurated  by  him.  It  is  not 
generally  known  that  the  so-called  Platt  Amendment, 
defining  our  relations  to  Cuba,  was  drafted  by  Mr.  Root,  and 
that  the  Organic  Act  of  the  Philippines  was  likewise  the  work 
of  Mr.  Root  as  Secretary  of  War. 

The  argument  before  The  Hague  Tribunal  in  the  North 
Atlantic  Fisheries  Case  is  a  rare  if  not  the  only  instance  of  a 
statesman  appearing  as  chief  counsel  in  an  international 
arbitration,  which,  as  Secretary  of  State,  he  had  prepared 
and  submitted. 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE  ix 

The  miscellaneous  addresses,  including  educational,  his- 
torical, and  commemorative  addresses,  the  political  speeches 
in  days  of  peace,  and  the  stirring  and  prophetic  utterances 
in  anticipation  of  and  during  our  war  with  Germany,  deliv- 
ered at  home  and  on  special  mission  in  Russia,  should  make 
known  to  future  generations  the  literary,  artistic,  and  emo- 
tional side  of  this  broad-minded  and  far-seeing  statesman  of 
our  time. 

The  publication  of  these  collected  addresses  and  state 
papers  will,  it  is  believed,  enable  the  American  people  better 
to  understand  the  generation  in  which  Mr.  Root  has  been  a 
commanding  figure,  and  better  to  appreciate  during  his  life- 
time the  services  which  he  has  rendered  to  his  country. 

ROBERT  BACON. 
JAMES  BROWN  SCOTT. 

SEPTEMBER  16,  1917. 


THE  ENSLAVEMENT  OF  THE  BELGIANS 

ADDRESS  AT  A  MASS  MEETING  IN  NEW  YORK  CITY 
DECEMBER  15,  1916 

I  AM  glad  to  join  my  voice  tonight  with  my  fellows  in  this 
free  land  in  condemnation  and  protest  against  this  new 
outrage  that  is  visited  upon  poor  and  bleeding  Belgium. 

I  could  not  remain  silent.  I  should  not  respect  myself  if  I 
remained  silent,  and  I  hope,  I  trust,  I  pray,  that  my  country 
will  not  remain  silent. 

Explain  it  as  you  may,  excuse  it  as  you  may,  disguise  it  as 
you  may,  the  people  of  Belgium  by  the  tens  and  hundreds  of 
thousands  are  being  carried  away  into  slavery,  —  a  thing 
that  has  not  been  done  by  any  nation  that  claimed  to  be 
civilized  in  modern  history. 

Poor  Belgium,  peaceful,  industrious,  God-fearing,  law- 
abiding  Belgium,  she  had  no  quarrel  with  any  one;  she 
sought  no  nation's  territory;  she  coveted  no  neighbor's 
goods;  she  threatened  no  one's  security,  but  she  stood  in  the 
way  of  a  mightier  nation's  purpose,  —  and  she  was  stricken 
to  the  earth !  Her  firm,  her  stern  and  noble  resolve  to  keep 
the  faith  was  her  only  crime,  and  she  has  been  punished  as  if 
her  people  were  the  vilest  on  earth.  Her  towns  have  been 
burned,  her  noble  and  stately  monuments  have  been  leveled 
to  the  earth;  her  women  and  children  and  old  men  have  been 
murdered;  her  country  has  been  brought  under  the  sway  of 
a  foreign  invader,  and  she  has  been  bled  white  by  vast 
exactions  of  money  and  of  produce.  Every  effort  to  revive 
her  industries  has  been  denied,  and  now,  because  she  has 
suffered  thus,  her  men  are  to  be  carried  away  to  forced  labor 
as  slaves. 


4  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

If  the  civilized  world  of  the  twentieth  century  is  willing  to 
stand  silent  and  see  these  things  done,  in  cumulative  pro- 
gression, in  violation  of  the  laws  of  humanity  and  of  nations, 
then  the  civilization  of  the  twentieth  century  is  worse  than 
the  savagery  of  Roman  times. 

It  seems  that  there  is  no  place  for  the  independence  of 
small,  weak  states,  for  security  in  self-government  by  peace- 
able and  unarmed  peoples,  or  for  individual  freedom,  or  for 
private  right,  in  that  scheme  of  things  under  which  "  liberty 
for  national  evolution  "  is  to  justify  all  uses  of  power. 

But  what  we  have  to  do  is  not  merely  to  gratify  our  own 
feelings,  by  expressing  them  regarding  this  treatment  of  the 
Belgians.  What  we  have  to  do  is  not  merely  to  protest  in  the 
name  of  humanity,  —  it  is  to  assert  a  right,  it  is  to  call  upon 
the  world  to  assert  a  right,  a  right  under  the  law  of  nations 
for  the  protection  of  humanity  and  of  civilization.  This  is  our 
concern.  This  deportation  of  the  Belgians  to  involuntary 
servitude  is  a  violation  of  our  law,  of  the  law  we  helped  to 
make,  of  the  law  which  in  common  with  all  civilized  nations 
we  have  built  up  generation  after  generation,  and  it  has  been 
embodied  in  definite  and  certain  and  solemn  instruments  of 
agreement,  as  to  what  humanity  demands,  signed  by  Bel- 
gium, signed  by  Germany,  and  binding  today.  I  see  that 
General  von  Bissing  justifies  the  deportation  of  Belgian 
workmen  and  refers  to  the  Hague  Convention  as  to  the  basis 
for  his  action,  quoting  the  provision  that  it  is  the  duty  of  a 
belligerent  power,  in  possession  of  conquered  territory,  to 
preserve  order.  The  deportation,  he  says,  was  to  preserve 
order  in  Belgium.  Let  me  read  the  whole  of  the  provision  to 
which  he  refers: 

The  authority  of  the  legitimate  power,  having  actually  passed  into  the 
hands  of  the  occupant,  the  latter  shall  take  all  steps  in  his  power  to  rees- 
tablish and  insure  as  far  as  possible  public  order  and  safety,  while  respect- 
ing, unless  absolutely  prevented,  the  laws  in  force  in  the  country. 


THE  ENSLAVEMENT  OF  THE  BELGIANS    5 

The  most  solemn  of  the  laws  of  Belgium,  protecting  the 
rights  of  her  people,  were  violated  in  contravention  of 
that  very  provision  by  the  man  who  appeals  to  it  for  his 
justification. 

What  I  read  was  from  Article  43  of  the  1899  convention 
of  the  First  Hague  Conference.  The  convention  proceeds: 

Family  honors  and  rights,  individual  lives,  and  private  property,  as  well 
as  religious  convictions,  and  liberty,  must  be  respected. 

The  convention  further  proceeds: 

Until  a  more  complete  code  of  the  laws  of  war  is  issued,  the  high  con- 
tracting parties  have  the  right  to  declare  that  in  cases  not  included  in  the 
regulations  adopted  by  them,  populations  and  belligerents  remain  under 
the  protection  and  empire  of  the  principles  of  international  law  as  they 
result  from  the  usages  established  between  civilized  nations,  the  laws  of 
humanity,  and  the  requirements  of  public  conscience. 

That  convention  was  signed  and  ratified  by  every  Power 
that  is  now  engaged  in  the  European  war,  as  well  as  by  our- 
selves. There  was  a  subsequent  convention  that  was  signed 
by  nearly  all,  which  contained  a  provision  that  as  to  those 
that  did  not  sign,  the  convention  from  which  I  read  continued 
in  force.  The  subsequent  convention  contained  precisely 
identical  provisions,  so  that  Germany  is  bound  hi  conscience 
and  in  law  by  the  existing  treaty  between  her  and  us,  between 
her  and  Belgium,  declaring  what  the  principles  of  humanity 
require  in  the  treatment  of  occupied  territory.  Those 
principles  of  humanity  have  been  violated  in  accordance  with 
the  very  statement  of  them  upon  which  she  and  we  have 
agreed. 

Now,  I  say  this  law  is  our  law;  it  is  our  protection.  The 
rights  of  man,  peace  and  humanity,  cannot  be  preserved 
upon  impulse  alone.  Law  governing  men  in  the  treatment 
of  the  weak  and  defenseless  is  necessary;  and  so  for  years, 
for  centuries,  the  nations  have  been  building  up  a  code  of 
law,  international  law,  and  that  law  is  the  protection  —  the 


6  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

enforcement  of  that  law,  respect  for  that  law,  obedience  to 
that  law,  are  the  protection  of  our  peaceable  people,  of  all 
weak  and  small  nations,  of  all  those  that  do  not  wish  to  be 
armed  to  the  teeth  every  moment  for  their  own  protection. 

We  have  a  right  to  have  it  observed,  and  it  is  our  duty  to 
our  children  and  to  our  country  that  we  shall  not  remain 
silent  in  the  face  of  open,  flagrant,  contemptuous  disregard 
and  violation  of  it. 

How  can  it  be  preserved  ?  Not  merely  by  armies  and 
navies.  No.  There  is  but  one  power  on  earth  that  can  pre- 
serve the  law  for  the  protection  of  the  poor,  the  weak  and  the 
humble;  there  is  but  one  power  on  earth  that  can  preserve 
the  law  for  the  maintenance  of  civilization  and  humanity,  and 
that  is  the  power,  the  mighty  power,  of  the  public  opinion  of 
mankind ! 

Without  it,  your  leagues  to  enforce  peace,  your  societies  for 
a  world's  court,  your  peace  conventions,  your  peace  endow- 
ments, are  all  powerless,  because  no  force  moves  in  this  world 
unless  it  ultimately  has  public  opinion  behind  it. 

The  thing  that  men  fear  more  than  they  do  the  sheriff  or 
the  policeman  or  the  state's  prison  is  the  condemnation  of  the 
community  in  which  they  live. 

The  thing  that  among  nations  is  the  most  potent  force  is 
the  universal  condemnation  of  mankind.  And  even  during 
this  terrible  struggle  we  have  seen  the  nations  appealing  from 
day  to  day,  appealing  by  speech  and  by  pen  and  by  press  for 
favorable  judgment  from  mankind,  the  public  opinion  of  the 
world.  That  opinion  establishes  standards  of  conduct.  In 
Roman  times,  the  standard  of  conduct  permitted  the  carry- 
ing off  of  slaves  to  the  mines;  permitted  the  impaling  of 
prisoners;  permitted  the  sacking  of  towns.  At  the  time  of  the 
Thirty  Years'  War,  outrages  almost  as  bad  as  those  which 
have  been  perpetrated  in  Belgium  were  in  accord  with  the 
practice  and  acquiescence  of  the  world;  but  we  thought  that 


THE  ENSLAVEMENT  OF  THE  BELGIANS     7 

we  had  been  building  up  new  standards  of  conduct,  that  the 
world  had  grown  more  compassionate,  and  more  kindly,  and 
it  had.  The  public  opinion  of  the  world  was  establishing,  had 
established,  a  more  humane  and  Christian  standard  of  con- 
duct, both  in  peace  and  in  war.  That  standard  is  now 
beaten  down,  it  is  destroyed,  it  is  set  at  naught.  And  if  we 
remain  silent,  if  the  great  neutral  peoples  of  the  world  remain 
silent,  the  standard  is  gone  forever. 

And,  mark  this,  the  new  standard,  or  rather,  the  return  to 
the  old  standard  of  barbarism  will  not  stop  with  the  poor 
people  of  Belgium.  It  will  be  here !  Not  perhaps  for  you  and 
me,  but  for  our  children  it  will  be  here. 

How  can  we  maintain  the  standard  of  civilization  ?  Not 
by  silence  regarding  international  wrong.  If  the  world  of  well 
meaning  and  kindly  and  good  people  remain  silent  when 
hideous  wrong  is  done,  what  difference  is  there  to  the  wrong- 
doer between  right  and  wrong  ?  In  order  that  the  public 
opinion  of  the  world  should  be  worth  anything,  it  must 
condemn  wrong. 

And  that  is  what  we  are  called  upon  to  do  now.  I  have 
thought  it  should  be  done  before,  but  now  there  can  be  no 
doubt.  I  say  that  the  mightiest  power  that  man  knows,  is 
ready  to  be  awakened  and  brought  to  bear  for  the  prevention 
of  such  crimes  in  the  future,  provided  we  and  others  like  us 
are  true  to  our  duty  and  speak  out  in  condemnation  of  horrid 
crimes.  America  cannot  choose  at  will.  We  have  made 
professions,  we  have  assumed  an  attitude,  we  have  taken 
upon  ourselves  responsibility,  we  have  declared  ourselves  the 
champions  of  freedom.  Ah!  Remember  across  the  half- 
century,  the  words  of  Lincoln:  "  Four  score  and  seven  years 
ago  our  Fathers  brought  forth  upon  this  Continent  a  new 
nation  conceived  in  liberty,  and  dedicated  to  the  proposition 
that  all  men  are  created  equal."  They  came  here  across  the 
stormy  seas  in  their  little  boats  and  braved  the  rigors  of 


8  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

winter  and  the  perils  of  savage  foes  that  they  might  be  free. 
Some  of  us  remember  how  they  gave  their  lives  that  the 
blacks  might  be  free.  It  was  the  spirit  of  freedom  that  took 
the  pioneers  across  the  mountains  and  the  plains  and  the 
rivers,  and  gave  this  vast  continent  to  the  reign  of  law  and 
justice  and  peace.  We  have  cherished  ideals,  we  have  had 
dreams,  we  have  had  ideals  of  a  world  made  better  and 
happier  and  nobler  because  America  was  a  free  democracy. 
We  cannot  remain  silent  now  while  these  poor  Belgians, 
without  fault,  are  carried  into  slavery,  without  abjuring  our 
past,  and  being  false  to  our  country. 

Land  where  my  fathers  died, 
Land  of  the  Pilgrims'  pride, 
From  every  mountain  side, 
Let  Freedom  ring! 

Our  fathers'  God,  to  Thee, 

Author  of  Liberty, 

To  Thee  we  sing. 

Long  may  our  land  be  bright, 

With  Freedom's  holy  light. 

One  cannot  be  an  American,  with  the  history  of  America, 
without  responsibility,  and  that  responsibility  confronts  the 
people  of  our  country  today  to  protect  the  spirit  of  American 
freedom.  We  have  grown  rich  beyond  the  dreams  of  avarice. 
So  prosperous,  so  many  millions  of  automobiles,  such  palaces, 
such  comforts,  such  luxury!  Intellect  has  been  trained,  edu- 
cation spread  broadcast  over  the  land,  peace  preserved !  Ah ! 
Are  we  so  sunk  in  comfort  and  luxury  and  self-satisfaction, 
that  we  have  lost  the  old  spirit  of  American  freedom? 

If  we  have  not,  we  shall  not  dare  remain  silent  over  this 
latest  wrong  to  Belgium. 

Let  me  read  the  effective  words  of  that  great-hearted  and 
noble  prelate,  whose  message,  appealing  to  all  that  is  best  in 
humanity  throughout  the  world,  fearless  of  the  mighty  power 


THE  ENSLAVEMENT  OF  THE  BELGIANS     9 

that  seeks  to  constrain  him,  will  make  the  name  of  Cardinal 
Mercier  great  in  history.  Let  me  read  from  his  pathetic 
appeal : 

We,  the  shepherds  of  these  sheep  who  are  torn  from  us  by  brutal  force, 
full  of  anguish  at  the  thought  of  the  moral  and  religious  isolation  in  which 
they  are  about  to  languish,  impotent  witnesses  of  the  grief  and  terror  in  the 
numerous  homes  shattered  or  threatened,  appeal  to  all  souls,  believers  or 
unbelievers,  in  allied  countries,  in  neutral  countries,  and  even  in  enemy 
countries,  who  have  a  respect  for  human  dignity.  May  Divine  Providence 
deign  to  inspire  all  who  have  any  authority,  all  who  are  masters  of  speech 
and  pen,  to  rally  round  our  humble  Belgian  flag  for  the  abolition  of 
European  slavery. 

Thank  Heaven  our  President  has  assumed  the  leadership  of 
the  free  opinion  of  the  American  democracy,  and  has  spoken 
for  it  to  Germany.  All  honor  to  him  for  it,  and  it  is  for  us  to 
say,  as  I  for  my  part  say,  that  we  will  stand  by  him,  support 
him,  approve  him  in  maintaining  the  application  of  the  free 
principles  of  America  in  insisting  upon  respect  and  obedience 
to  the  law  which  protects  all  weak  and  peaceable  nations, 
and  in  protesting,  with  all  the  power  of  the  hundred  millions 
of  America  against  the  outrage  upon  humanity  which  has 
been  done. 

We  may  not  be,  in  the  words  of  Cardinal  Mercier,  "  mas- 
ters of  speech  and  pen",  but  we  are  masters  of  our  souls,  and 
we  are  part  of  the  great  self-governing  people  of  America, 
and  we  can  speak,  and  we  can  speak  so  clear  and  high  that 
the  world  will  hear  it,  and  that  all  right-minded  and  com- 
passionate men  and  women  will  follow  it  and  will  join  with 
us  until  the  voice  of  the  public  opinion  of  the  world  will 
satisfy  the  most  hard-hearted  tyrant  of  them  all  that  wrongs 
such  as  these  are  punished  by  the  universal  condemnation 
of  mankind. 


AMERICA'S  PRESENT  NEEDS 

ADDRESS  AT  THE  CONGRESS  OF  CONSTRUCTIVE  PATRIOTISM 

HELD  UNDER  THE  AUSPICES  OF  THE  NATIONAL  SECURITY 

LEAGUE,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  JANUARY  25,  1917 

I  FIND  that  I  am  set  down  upon  the  program  to  speak 
upon  America's  present  needs.  I  should  not  have  dignified 
the  few  remarks  that  I  have  to  make  by  any  such  stupendous 
title.  I  will  make  one  observation,  however,  upon  the  sub- 
ject. It  is  that  America's  present  need  is  a  re-awakening  of 
the  spirit  of  a  free  self-governing  democracy.  And  unless  we 
are  to  wait  until  some  great  and  terrible  misfortune  brings 
that  awakening,  each  one  of  us,  whose  eyes  are  open  to  the 
condition  and  the  demands  of  the  times,  must  do  his  utmost 
to  render  his  service  and  awaken  his  fellows. 

Now  I  wish  I  could  say  something  —  I  would  like  to  say 
something,  not  so  much  to  lead  or  to  convince  you,  whose 
eyes  are  already  open,  and  who  have  come  here  because  they 
are  open,  but  something  that  will  enable  you,  when  you  go 
home,  to  stir  your  fellow-countrymen,  men  and  women,  out 
of  the  lethargy  into  which  they  have  fallen,  a  lethargy  in 
which  they  assume  that  liberty  and  justice  come  as  the  air, 
without  effort  and  need  no  service  and  no  sacrifice  for  their 
perpetuation,  a  lethargy  in  which  the  more  material  things 
of  life  fill  the  needs  and  the  wants,  and  to  have  a  fat  and 
increasing  income  and  swell  the  millions  of  automobiles  in  the 
country,  seems  to  be  the  mission  of  the  American  Republic. 
We  have  reached  this  condition  of  indifference  and  sluggish 
patriotism  through  decadence.  As  life  has  grown  easier  sac- 
rifice has  grown  harder.  As  we  have  grown  rich  in  material 
things  we  have  grown  poor  in  spirit. 

n 


12  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

The  original  theory  of  our  American  government  was  the 
theory  of  universal  service.  Let  me  read  you  how  the  fathers 
of  the  Republic  conceived  that  American  independence  and 
American  freedom  were  to  be  preserved.  I  read  from  the 
Militia  Act  of  May  8,  1792  —  and  you  will  perceive  here 
that  the  Act  is  based  upon  the  principle  of  universal  com- 
pulsory preparation  for  public  defense.  The  quaint  old 
phrases  of  the  Act  may  serve  to  impress  upon  your  minds  the 
changes  of  condition  to  which  the  principle  is  to  be  applied, 
while  they  may  serve  to  enforce  the  memory  of  the  principle. 
These  are  its  provisions  : 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United 
States  of  America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  each  and  every  free  able- 
bodied  white  male  citizen  of  the  respective  states,  resident  therein,  who  is 
or  shall  be  of  the  age  of  eighteen  years,  and  under  the  age  of  forty-five 
years  .  .  .  shall  severally  and  respectively  be  enrolled  in  the  militia  by  the 
captain,  or  commanding  officer  of  the  company,  within  whose  bounds  such 
citizen  shall  reside,  and  that  within  twelve  months  after  the  passing  of  this 
act.  And  it  shall  at  all  times  hereafter  be  the  duty  of  every  such  captain  or 
commanding  officer  of  a  company  to  enrol  every  such  citizen,  as  aforesaid, 
and  also  those  who  shall,  from  time  to  time,  arrive  at  the  age  of  eighteen 
years,  or  being  of  the  age  of  eighteen  years  and  under  the  age  of  forty-five 
years  .  .  .  shall  come  to  reside  within  his  bounds;  and  shall  without  delay 
notify  such  citizen  of  the  said  enrolment,  by  a  proper  non-commissioned 
officer  of  the  company,  by  whom  such  notice  may  be  proved.  That  every 
citizen  so  enrolled  and  notified,  shall,  within  six  months  thereafter,  provide 
himself  with  a  good  musket  or  firelock,  a  sufficient  bayonet  and  belt,  two 
spare  flints,  and  a  knapsack,  a  pouch  with  a  box  therein  to  contain  not  less 
than  twenty-four  cartridges,  suited  to  the  bore  of  his  musket  or  firelock, 
each  cartridge  to  contain  a  proper  quantity  of  powder  and  ball:  or  with  a 
good  rifle,  knapsack,  shot-pouch  and  powder-horn,  twenty  balls  suited  to 
the  bore  of  his  rifle,  and  a  quarter  of  a  pound  of  powder;  and  shall  appear, 
so  armed,  accoutred  and  provided,  when  called  out  to  exercise,  or  into 
service,  except,  that  when  called  out  on  company  days  to  exercise  only,  he 
may  appear  without  a  knapsack.  That  the  commissioned  officers  shall 
severally  be  armed  with  a  sword  or  hanger  and  espontoon,  and  that  from 
and  after  five  years  from  the  passing  of  this  act,  all  muskets  for  arming 
the  militia  as  herein  required,  shall  be  of  bores  sufficient  for  balls  of  the 
eighteenth  part  of  a  pound.  And  every  citizen  so  enrolled,  and  providing 
himself  with  the  arms,  ammunition  and  accoutrements  required  as  afore- 


AMERICA'S  PRESENT  NEEDS  13 

said,  shall  hold  the  same  exempted  from  all  suits,  distresses,  executions  or 
sales,  for  debt  or  for  the  payment  of  taxes.  .  .  . 

And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  within  one  year  after  the  passing  of  this 
act,  the  militia  of  the  respective  states  shall  be  arranged  into  divisions, 
brigades,  regiments,  battalions,  and  companies,  as  the  legislature  of  each 
state  shall  direct.  .  .  . 

And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  there  shall  be  an  adjutant-general 
appointed  in  each  state,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  distribute  all  orders  from 
the  commander-in-chief  of  the  state  to  the  several  corps;  to  attend  all 
public  reviews  when  the  commander-in-chief  of  the  state  shall  review  the 
militia,  or  any  part  thereof;  to  obey  all  orders  from  him  relative  to  carry- 
ing into  execution  and  perfecting  the  system  of  military  discipline  estab- 
lished by  this  act;  to  furnish  blank  forms  of  different  returns  that  may  be 
required,  and  to  explain  the  principles  on  which  they  should  be  made;  to 
receive  from  the  several  officers  of  the  different  corps  throughout  the  state, 
returns  of  the  militia  under  their  command,  reporting  the  actual  situation 
of  their  arms,  accoutrements,  and  ammunition,  their  delinquencies,  and 
every  other  thing  which  relates  to  the  general  advancement  of  good  order 
and  discipline:  all  which  the  several  officers  of  the  divisions,  brigades, 
regiments,  and  battalions,  are  hereby  required  to  make  in  the  usual 
manner,  so  that  the  said  adjutant-general  may  be  duly  furnished  there- 
with: from  all  which  returns  he  shall  make  proper  abstracts,  and  lay  the 
same  annually  before  the  Commander-in-chief  of  the  state. 

And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  the  rules  of  discipline,  approved  and 
established  by  Congress  in  their  resolution  of  the  twenty-ninth  of  March, 
one  thousand  seven  hundred  and  seventy-nine,  shall  be  the  rules  of  disci- 
pline to  be  observed  by  the  militia  throughout  the  United  States,  except 
such  deviations  from  the  said  rules  as  may  be  rendered  necessary  by  the 
requisitions  of  this  act,  or  by  some  other  unavoidable  circumstances.  It 
shall  be  the  duty  of  the  commanding  officer  at  every  muster,  whether  by 
battalion,  regiment,  or  single  company,  to  cause  the  militia  to  be  exercised 
and  trained  agreeably  to  the  said  rules  of  discipline.1 

Now,  what  we  are  talking  about  in  the  meetings  that  have 
led  up  to  this  congress  is  a  return  to  the  original  basic  prin- 
ciple upon  which  this  government  was  founded.  There  were 
rapid  changes  in  conditions  after  this  old,  early  Act.  We 
gradually  became  relieved  of  the  pressure  of  contiguous  pos- 
sible enemies.  With  the  purchase  of  Louisiana  in  1803  the 
France  of  Napoleon  disappeared  from  our  border.  With 

1  U.S.  Statutet  at  Large,  Vol.  I.  pp.  271-273. 


14  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

the  acquisition  of  Florida  in  1819,  Spain  withdrew  from  the 
continental  limits  of  the  present  United  States,  and  we  no 
longer  looked  at  Spanish  soldiers  across  an  imaginary  border 
line.  With  the  settlement  of  the  Northeastern  boundary 
controversy,  in  the  Webster-Ashburton  treaty  of  1842,  and 
with  the  Oregon  boundary  settlement  in  1846,  all  cause  of 
controversy  with  Great  Britain  upon  our  northern  frontier 
disappeared.  With  the  gradual  pressing  out  of  the  settlers, 
occupation  of  Indian  lands,  and  pressing  back  of  the  Indians, 
the  danger  of  the  Indian  wars  to  the  great  settled  states  upon 
the  Atlantic  seaboard  became  far  distant,  and  that  great 
race  question  which  agitated  the  men  of  the  early  days 
disappeared.  We  grew  in  numbers  vastly  and  became  so 
numerous  that  for  any  of  the  ordinary  wars  as  they  occurred 
in  the  nineteenth  century,  it  seemed  unnecessary  that  all  the 
people  of  all  the  states  should  hold  themselves  prepared  in 
accordance  with  the  principles  of  this  Act  of  1792.  Enough 
could  be  raised  at  any  time  to  constitute  an  army  of  the  size 
which  was  customary  for  the  wars  of  that  period.  The  spirit 
of  adventure  would  lead  young  men  enough  to  come  to  the 
front  to  engage  in  ordinary  small  wars,  like,  for  instance, 
the  Mexican  War.  And,  finally,  we  came  to  the  point  where  all 
this  duty  was  completely  changed,  and  the  old  militia  service 
disappeared.  About  fourteen  years  ago  a  new  experiment 
was  tried.  During  this  period  of  the  gradual  occultation  of 
militia  service  the  states  had  found  that  they  needed  some 
organized  force  for  what  was  practically  police  duty,  and 
from  that  need  the  National  Guard  arose.  It  was  not  that 
the  states  expected  to  engage  in  war  with  anybody,  but 
because  they  must  have  an  organized  force;  and  about  four- 
teen years  ago  the  effort  was  made  to  utilize  that  organized 
force  as  a  means  of  furnishing  instruction  to  young  Americans 
which  would  give  them,  in  case  they  were  called  to  volunteer 
for  military  service,  the  A  B  C  of  that  service.  In  all  our 


AMERICA'S  PRESENT  NEEDS  15 

wars  we  have  suffered  dreadfully  from  the  fact  that  outside 
of  the  small  regular  army  our  volunteers  had  to  be  officered 
by  men  taken  out  of  the  workshop,  the  law  office,  the  store, 
the  farm;  good  men,  but  wholly,  wholly  untrained  in  military 
life  and  military  duty;  and  no  one  can  measure  the  loss  of  life 
which  occurred  in  our  Civil  War  because  the  young  men  who 
were  sent  on  to  the  battlefields  were  led  by  officers  wholly 
ignorant  of  their  duties. 

The  attempt  then  was  made  to  treat  the  National  Guard 
as  an  organized  militia,  to  require  its  organization,  its  disci- 
pline, its  armament,  to  conform  to  that  of  the  regular  army, 
give  it  instructors  from  the  regular  army,  have  it  exercise  in 
maneuvers  and  in  camps  with  the  regular  army  and  con- 
tribute out  of  the  national  treasury  towards  its  support  and 
instruction,  and  that  process  has  been  going  on  for  the  last 
fourteen  years. 

It  now  appears,  however,  I  think  with  great  certainty,  that 
that  process  cannot  produce  more  than  a  comparatively 
small  number  of  men  who  are  trained  so  that  they  have 
even  the  elements  of  military  service.  The  National  Guard 
has  not  increased  very  much  during  the  whole  period  that  has 
elapsed  since  the  so-called  Dick  Act  that  made  the  arrange- 
ments for  this  joint  instruction  and  joint  exercise. 

So  we  find  ourselves  in  this  situation,  that  we  have  not  yet 
secured  any  real  substitute  for  the  old  universal  service  that 
is  adequate  to  any  very  great  military  operation.  But,  in 
the  meantime,  the  science  of  war  has  changed,  and  the  rela- 
tions of  armies  and  navies  to  the  other  peoples  of  the  earth 
have  changed  so  that  we  have  an  entirely  new  and  different 
problem.  In  the  old  days  nations  used  to  send  out  armies, 
composed  of  but  a  very  small  part  of  the  population,  and 
those  armies  used  to  look  for  each  other  and  fight  each  other, 
and,  when  they  got  through,  there  would  be  a  peace  made, 
which  would  result  in  some  little  changes,  sometimes  of 


16  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

consequence  and  sometimes  of  very  little  consequence,  but 
the  great  mass  of  the  people  were  not  very  much  affected. 
The  great  mass  of  the  people  took  but  little  part  in  it. 

But,  now,  war  has  become  a  conflict  of  entire  nations 
against  each  other  and  we  see  today  the  whole  people  of 
England  and  the  whole  people  of  France  and  the  whole 
people  of  Germany  and  of  Austria,  engaged  in  actual  parti- 
cipation in  the  conflict.  Now,  with  that  kind  of  war,  our 
little  provision  of  a  small  regular  army  and  a  small  National 
Guard  is  entirely  incompetent  to  deal.  We  have  already 
discovered  that  we  cannot  get  any  considerable  increase 
through  volunteering.  There  are  not  enough  with  all  the 
interest  in  preparation  for  defense,  to  fill  up  the  ranks  of  our 
regular  army  or  to  fill  up  the  ranks  of  our  National  Guard. 
The  reason  is  that  the  spirit  of  adventure  is  not  adequate  to 
furnish  the  soldiers. 

That  same  thing  has  proven  true  before.  In  1812  we  had 
to  come  to  a  draft.  We  tried  to  fight  that  war  with  volun- 
teers, volunteers  in  the  regulars  and  volunteers  in  the  militia, 
and  we  were  unable  to  do  it  and  we  came  to  a  draft  and  we 
made  a  terrible  mess  of  it.  In  the  Civil  War  we  had  to  come 
to  a  draft.  We  tried  to  fight  it  with  volunteers.  The  South 
appreciated  the  difficulty  in  1862  and  started  on  a  draft  then. 
We  waited  until  1863,  when  we  took  recourse  to  conscription. 
Whenever  the  real  stresses  come,  since  we  have  abandoned 
the  old  universal  system  of  this  Act  of  1792,  the  volunteer 
system  has  proved  to  be  insufficient  to  answer  the  purpose. 
And  now,  a  thousand  times  more,  will  it  be  incompetent  when 
whole  nations  engage  in  war. 

War  is  changing  in  another  respect.  It  has  become  vastly 
more  scientific  and  the  instruments  of  warfare  have  gone  out 
of  sight  from  the  old  hanger  and  spontoon  of  the  Act  of  1792. 
High  explosives  and  machine  guns,  and  breech-loading  can- 
nons, and  great  field  pieces  that  are  sufficient  to  batter  down 


AMERICA'S  PRESENT  NEEDS  17 

the  mightiest  fortifications,  and  submarines,  and  airships,  and 
deadly  gases,  and  spurting  flames,  and  scores  of  other  devices 
of  science,  have  created  a  situation  in  which  this  volunteer 
million  which  is  going  to  rise  up  when  the  President  calls  for 
the  defense  of  America,  stand  no  more  chance  against  a  dis- 
ciplined and  trained  army  than  the  poor  Mexicans  did  against 
Cortez,  when  he  went  through  Mexico;  or  than  the  Ameri- 
can Indians  with  their  bows  and  arrows  stood  against  the 
regulars  that  drove  them  step  by  step  from  their  ancient 
possessions.  We  would  be  today,  if  engaged  in  war,  with 
our  million  patriots,  in  the  position  of  the  helpless  savage 
fighting  against  the  trained  forces  of  civilization. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  come  even  to  this  time  for  that, 
for  here  we  should  remember,  when  we  are  talking  about 
the  defense  of  country,  how  the  British  troops  captured 
Washington  and  burned  the  Capitol  and  White  House, 
marching  from  the  Chesapeake  here  against  an  American 
army  many  times  their  number.  Why  ?  These  men,  whom 
Madison  drove  out  to  see  and  in  front  of  whose  rout  he  drove 
rapidly  back,  were  the  sons  of  the  men  who  fought  at  Bunker 
Hill  and  Saratoga  and  Yorktown,  and  they  were  the  fathers 
of  the  men  who  fought  at  Gettysburg  and  Shiloh.  They  were 
as  brave,  as  manly,  as  their  fathers  or  their  sons,  but  they 
fled  before  a  force  of  men  of  the  same  race,  far,  far  inferior  in 
number.  Why  ?  Because  they  did  not  know  how  to  fight. 
They  were  as  helpless  as  a  sheep  before  a  wolf.  They  did  not 
know  how.  A  little  training  beforehand  would  have  taught 
them  how. 

Now  there  is  one  other  thing  of  vast  importance  and  that 
is,  that  not  only  must  men  learn  how,  but  they  must  be  sup- 
plied. Armies  must  have  food  and  shoes  and  clothes,  and 
rifles  to  take  the  place  of  those  that  are  broken  and  lost,  and 
ammunition  to  take  the  place  of  that  which  is  fired  away, 
and  cannons,  and  all  the  vast  range  of  scientific  appliances 


18  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

with  which  they  may  hold  their  own  in  battle.  They  must  be 
transported.  The  high  explosives  require  the  use  of  many, 
many  ingredients,  not  common.  All  of  this  vast  supply,  this 
supply  upon  which  one-half  the  world  is  engaged  today  while 
the  other  hah*  is  using  it  in  war,  this  vast  supply  must  be 
provided  from  raw  materials,  and,  in  order  that  it  may  be 
made,  people  must  know  how  to  make  it  and  must  be  trained 
in  making  it.  And  so  there  must  be  industrial  training,  indus- 
trial organization,  industrial  preparation,  as  well  as  the  pro- 
vision of  men.  And  beyond  all  that,  when  war  comes,  people 
have  got  to  live.  The  industrial  and  financial  processes  of 
the  country  have  got  to  go  on,  and  if  they  are  to  go  on  not- 
withstanding the  vastly  disturbing  forces  of  war,  which  break 
up  all  the  common  usual  relations  and  occupations,  people 
have  got  to  be  trained  in  industry.  They  have  got  to  have 
the  spirit  of  industry.  They  have  got  to  have  the  spirit 
which  will  lead  them  to  work  although  they  are  no  longer 
making  profits.  They  have  got  to  have  the  spirit  which  will 
lead  them  to  exercise  their  industry  to  do  what  they  can,  each 
in  his  way  and  in  her  way,  to  continue  the  life  of  the  country, 
because  they  wish  to  serve  their  country.  That  means,  not 
merely  the  organization  of  an  army,  but  it  means  the  organ- 
ization of  a  nation.  No  army  and  no  nation  can  be  effectively 
organized  unless  the  spirit  is  within  it  which  gives  it  motive 
power. 

Well,  now,  why  all  this  ?  Why  need  we  disturb  ourselves  ? 
I  think  that  is  the  great  trouble.  I  think  that  the  great 
obstacle  you  men  and  women  of  this  conference  have  to  meet 
in  the  country  is  the  fact  that  a  great  mass  of  the  people  of 
the  country  do  not  believe  a  word  of  it,  do  not  believe  there 
is  any  necessity  of  our  talking  about  it,  do  not  believe  the 
trouble  is  ever  going  to  come.  To  be  sure,  we  have  had  wars 
all  along,  one  in  a  little  over  every  twenty  years  during  our 
entire  history.  It  is  nineteen  years  now  since  the  last,  and 


AMERICA'S  PRESENT  NEEDS  19 

we  are  due  to  have  one  pretty  soon.  But  they  do  not  believe 
that  anything  is  going  to  happen.  Now  that  is  the  trouble 
with  preparation.  If  the  people  of  the  United  States  thought 
that  there  was  any  real  danger  of  somebody's  attacking  us 
they  would  wake  up  soon  enough  and  get  ready.  But  they 
do  not.  So  they  turn  the  cows  out  to  pasture  and  are  no 
more  disturbed  about  things  than  the  cows.  Well,  let  us 
look  at  the  condition  of  affairs  in  the  world.  We  did  think 
that  things  were  getting  better.  We  had  high  hopes  that  the 
forces  that  make  for  peace,  the  public  opinion  of  civilized 
man,  and  the  values  to  civilized  man  of  uninterrupted  com- 
merce were  continually  making  war  less  probable.  But  we 
have  had  a  rude  awakening. 

The  present  war  which  is  raging  in  Europe  was  begun  upon 
an  avowal  of  principles  of  national  action  that  no  reasonable 
and  thoughtful  neutral  ought  to  ignore.  The  central  prin- 
ciple was  that  a  state  exigency,  state  interest,  is  superior  to 
those  rules  of  morality  which  control  individuals.  Now  that 
was  not  an  expedient,  an  excuse,  seized  upon  to  justify  the 
beginning  of  the  war;  it  is  fundamental.  The  theory  of  the 
modern  republic  is  that  right  begins  with  the  individual.  It 
was  stated  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  that  instru- 
ment which  it  was  the  fashion  to  sneer  at  a  few  years  ago, 
but  which  states  the  fundamental  principle  upon  which  alone 
a  free  republic  can  live.  It  was  that  individual  men  have 
unalienable  rights,  among  which  are  life,  liberty,  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness,  and  that  governments  are  instituted  to 
secure  those  rights.  The  ancient  theory,  the  theory  alike 
of  monarchies  and  of  the  ancient  republics  upon  which 
they  went  down  to  their  ruin,  was  that  the  state  in  the 
beginning  was  the  foundation  of  right,  and  that  individuals 
derive  their  rights  from  the  state,  and  therefore,  the  exigencies 
of  the  state  are  superior  to  all  individual  rights.  It  was  upon 
the  continuance  and  assertion  of  that  principle  that  this  war 


20  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

in  Europe  was  begun.  And  upon  that  principle  it  was 
declared  that  there  was  no  obligation  upon  a  nation  to  keep 
the  faith  of  a  treaty  if  it  did  not  suit  its  interests.  It  was 
declared  that  there  was  no  obligation  upon  a  nation  to 
observe  the  rules  of  that  law  of  nations  upon  which  all  civilized 
states  have  agreed,  if  it  did  not  suit  its  interest.  Now  mark, 
I  am  not  discussing  the  right  or  wrong,  I  am  stating  the  prin- 
ciple of  action  which  was  followed  and  which  was  asserted 
to  be  right.  Upon  that  principle  little  Servia  received  an  ulti- 
matum that  demanded  the  surrender  of  her  independence; 
and  upon  her  failure  to  comply  to  the  uttermost,  she  was 
overwhelmed.  Upon  that  principle  little  Belgium  that  had 
no  quarrel  with  anybody  was  served  with  a  demand  that  she 
surrender  her  independent  rights  as  a  neutral  and  violate  her 
solemn  agreements  to  preserve  her  neutrality;  and  upon 
her  refusal  to  surrender  her  rights  and  violate  her  faith,  she 
was  overwhelmed.  And  that  principle  is  still  maintained  and 
asserted  to  be  right.  I  repeat  that  I  am  not  referring  to  this 
for  the  purpose  of  discussing  it,  I  am  referring  to  it  because  it 
bears  directly  upon  our  business  here  today.  It  does  not 
matter  much  what  you  and  I  think  about  these  things;  it 
does  not  matter  that  I  think  they  were  immoral  and  criminal, 
as  I  do;  it  does  not  matter  that  I  think  that  if  that  principle 
of  national  conduct  is  to  be  maintained  and  approved  in  this 
world,  then  liberty  and  civilization  must  die.  What  does 
matter  is  that  approximately  one-half  the  entire  military 
power  of  this  world  supports  that  proposition.  And  I  say  to 
you,  and  I  wish  I  could  say  it  to  every  American,  if  that 
principle  of  national  conduct  be  approved  in  the  struggle 
that  is  pending,  be  approved  by  the  free  people  of  America, 
be  approved  by  the  conscience  of  the  civilized  world,  then  our 
American  freedom  will  surely  die  and  die  while  we  live. 

The  German  note  proposing  a  peace  conference  used  a 
phrase  which  aptly  describes  the  concrete  application  of  the 


AMERICA'S  PRESENT  NEEDS  21 

principle  about  which  I  am  talking.  It  said,  "  We  were 
forced  to  take  the  sword  for  justice  and  for  liberty  of  national 
evolution."  Liberty  of  national  evolution!  It  was  national 
evolution  that  overran  Servia.  It  was  national  evolution 
that  crushed  Belgium.  And  national  evolution  has  not  con- 
fined itself  to  the  pathway  to  the  Channel  or  to  the  pathway 
to  the  Bosporus;  it  has  extended  over  Asia  and  Africa, 
all  over  the  world,  except  America,  North  and  South,  eager 
and  grasping  and  resolute,  gathering  in  under  its  flag,  under 
domination,  under  national  control,  the  territory  of  the 
earth. 

All  nations  have  been  at  fault  during  this  last  half-century. 
Many  crimes  have  been  committed;  no  nations  that  I  know 
have  been  guiltless  —  none.  Neither  England,  nor  France, 
nor  Russia,  nor  Germany,  nor  Austria,  nor  the  United  States. 
For  we  still  have  to  answer  for  Mexico.  But  the  world  is 
partitioned  —  Asia,  Africa,  Australasia,  the  islands  of  the 
sea,  all  taken  up  —  except  America.  And  we  stand  here 
with  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  we  stand  here  with  the  Monroe 
Doctrine  against  the  push  and  sweep  of  that  mighty  world 
tendency  of  national  evolution  and  its  progress  under  the 
principle  that  neither  faith  of  treaties  nor  obligation  of  law 
nor  rule  of  morality  should  stand  in  the  way  of  a  state  that 
finds  its  interest  to  take  what  it  wants  for  its  national  interest. 
How  long  will  the  Monroe  Doctrine  be  worth  the  paper  it  was 
written  on  in  1823  if  that  condition  is  to  go  on  ?  That  doc- 
trine is  that  the  safety  of  the  United  States  forbids  any 
foreign  military  power  to  obtain  a  foothold  upon  this  conti- 
nent from  which  it  may  readily  make  war  upon  the  United 
States  —  that  is  the  Monroe  Doctrine  —  it  is  a  declaration 
of  what,  in  the  opinion  of  the  United  States,  is  necessary  for 
the  safety  of  the  United  States.  Now  that  doctrine  is  not 
international  law.  It  has  been  maintained  by  three  things. 
In  the  first  place,  the  men  of  Monroe's  time  never  thought  of 


22  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

such  a  thing  as  not  being  ready  to  fight  for  their  rights.  They 
were  Belgians,  those  people.  The  second  has  been  that  the 
balance  of  power  in  Europe  has  been  so  even,  so  close,  and 
everybody  has  been  so  doubtful  about  what  the  other  fel- 
lows were  going  to  do,  that  nobody  found  it  worth  while  to 
take  on  a  row  with  the  United  States.  And  third,  Eng- 
land's fleet. 

Now  I  ask  what  that  Monroe  Doctrine  will  be  worth  if 
we  are  not  ready  to  protect  it  ?  Suppose  the  result  of  this 
war  is  such  that  these  foreign  influences  that  have  helped  pre- 
serve the  Monroe  Doctrine  disappear,  and  we  are  not  ready 
to  defend  it  ?  Worthless !  What  will  it  mean  if  a  foreign 
naval  power,  a  real  naval  power,  a  real  military  power  obtains 
a  naval  base  in  the  Caribbean,  or  in  those  islands  of  the 
Pacific  off  Panama  ?  Our  interests  in  the  Panama  Canal 
will  be  as  worthless  to  us  as  the  Bosporus  is  to  Russia  today. 
And  instead  of  having  what  we  have  spent  four  hundred 
millions  to  accomplish,  the  means  of  transferring  our  navy 
from  ocean  to  ocean,  our  navy  will  be  shut  up  again  on  one 
side  or  the  other  of  the  continent.  And  then  we  will  have  to 
live  as  poor,  peaceable  France  has  lived  for  the  last  forty 
years,  with  a  sentinel  always  on  the  lookout  for  an  approach- 
ing foe.  Then  the  fancied  security  and  sweet,  comfortable 
ease  of  our  people  will  be  replaced  by  alarms  and  rumors  of 
war  and  attack  upon  occasion.  For  the  Monroe  Doctrine 
was  based  upon  sound  wisdom,  and  the  abandonment  of  it 
or  the  destruction  of  it  will  be  the  end  of  our  security. 

It  seems  to  me  that  we  have  reached  a  point  now  where  we 
can  say  that  a  prudent  man,  a  man  competent  to  be  a  trustee 
of  property,  will  see  that  it  is  necessary  for  us  to  prepare  to 
defend  our  rights.  For  why  should  not  this  principle  of 
national  aggression  be  applied  to  us  ?  Why  should  it  not  be 
applied  to  South  and  Central  America  and  the  West  Indies  ? 
Here  we  all  are,  rich,  undefended,  supine  —  fair  game  for 


AMERICA'S  PRESENT  NEEDS  23 

anybody  who  wants  national  evolution.  Can  anybody  tell 
why  it  should  not  ?  Interest  and  principle  and  habit  all  will 
conspire  to  a  treatment  of  America  like  the  treatment  of 
China.  And  there  is  only  one  way  possible  for  us  to  defend 
or  be  ready  to  defend  our  rights,  and  that  is  by  going  back  to 
the  old  principle  of  universal  preparation  for  service.  We 
have  found,  beyond  the  possibility  of  question,  that  volun- 
teering, however  ready  the  people  may  be,  will  not  answer  the 
purpose,  because  nobody  volunteers  until  war,  and  when 
the  war  comes  it  is  too  late  for  him  to  learn  to  do  his  duty. 
Nobody  is  volunteering  now,  nobody  volunteers  for  the 
National  Guard  or  the  regular  army,  and  nobody  will  until 
the  war.  It  is  a  matter  of  demonstration  that  you  cannot  get 
together  a  volunteer  force  in  time  of  peace  so  as  to  prepare 
them  to  render  their  service  in  time  of  war. 

Now,  going  back  to  the  matters  which  should  lead  a 
reasonable  person  to  consider  that  there  is  a  possibility  of  our 
being  attacked,  I  want  to  call  your  attention  to  the  way  in 
which  war  comes.  It  does  not  come  ordinarily  by  some 
country  starting  out  a  great  fleet  and  a  million  men  to  go  and 
invade  another.  It  comes  by  a  process  of  gradual  aggression. 
What  is  going  to  happen  to  us  if  we  do  not  get  ready  to 
defend  our  rights  will  be  that  first  there  will  be  one  little 
aggression  upon  our  rights  —  we  will  submit;  there  will  be 
another  little  aggression,  going  a  little  farther,  upon  our 
rights,  and  we  will  submit;  there  will  be  another,  and 
another,  and  another,  and  finally  the  patience  of  this  great 
democracy  will  be  worn  out  and  they  will  clamor  for  war,  and 
they  will  rush  into  war,  unprepared  for  war.  That  is  what  is 
going  to  happen  if  we  do  not  get  ready.  You  cannot  con- 
sider what  men  are  going  to  do  as  if  they  were  angels.  Men 
are  men,  and  greed  and  injustice  and  covetousness,  and  a 
desire  to  overrun  the  rights  of  others,  stalk  through  the  earth 
today  as  they  did  two  thousand  years  ago.  He  who  does  not 


24  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

defend  his  liberty  is  foolish  and  simple  and  unworthy  of 
liberty. 

Another  thing:  the  President  has  recently  made  a  speech 
in  the  Senate,  which  we  have  all  been  reading,  and  I  wish  you 
to  observe  that  the  only  way  he  sees  out  of  the  war  that  is 
devastating  Europe  is  by  preparation  for  war.  There  is 
much  noble  idealism  in  that  speech  of  the  President.  With 
its  purpose  I  fully  sympathize.  The  kind  of  peace  he 
describes  is  the  peace  that  I  long  for.  But  the  way  he  sees 
to  preserve  that  peace  is  by  preparation  for  war.  Now,  if 
some  of  our  friends  among  the  corn-fields  and  the  cotton- 
fields  and  the  mines,  and  the  citrous  fruit  orchards  will  sit  up 
and  read  this  clause  of  the  President's  speech,  telling  how  we 
may  prevent  further  wars,  they  may  have  reason  to  wonder 
whether  they  have  not  forgotten  something.  Here  it  is: 
**  Mere  agreement  may  not  make  peace  secure.  It  will  be 
absolutely  necessary  that  a  force  be  created  as  a  guarantor 
of  the  permanency  of  the  settlement  so  much  greater  than 
the  force  of  any  nation  now  engaged,  or  any  alliance  hitherto 
formed  or  projected,  that  no  nation,  no  probable  combina- 
tions of  nations,  could  face  or  withstand  it.  If  the  peace 
presently  to  be  made  is  to  endure  it  must  be  a  peace  made 
secure  by  the  organized  major  force  of  mankind." 

Now,  I  hope  that  paragraph  means  what  I  hope  it  does.  I 
do  not  understand  it  as  intended  to  commit  the  United  States 
to  enter  into  a  convention  or  treaty  with  the  other  civilized 
countries  of  the  world  which  will  bind  the  United  States  to  go 
to  war  on  the  continent  of  Europe  or  of  Asia  or  in  any  other 
part  of  the  world  without  the  people  of  the  United  States 
having  an  opportunity  at  the  time  to  say  whether  they  will  go 
to  war  or  not.  There  would  be  serious  difficulties,  I  think 
insurmountable  obstacles,  to  the  making  of  any  such  agree- 
ment. One  is,  that  agreement  or  no  agreement,  when  the 
time  comes  the  people  of  the  United  States  will  not  go  into 


AMERICA'S  PRESENT  NEEDS  25 

any  war,  and  nobody  can  get  them  into  any  war,  unless  they 
then  are  in  favor  of  fighting  for  something.  And  nothing  can 
be  so  bad  as  to  make  a  treaty  and  then  break  it.  What  I 
understand  by  it  is,  that  a  convention  shall  be  made  by  which 
all  the  civilized  nations  shall  agree  with  all  their  power  to 
stand  behind  the  maintenance  of  the  peace  thus  agreed  upon, 
and  if  that  peace  be  infringed  upon  then  each  nation  shall 
determine  what  it  is  its  duty  to  do  under  the  obligation  of 
that  agreement  towards  the  maintenance  of  that  peace.  But 
observe  that  that  is  worthless,  meaningless,  unless  the  nations 
that  enter  into  it  keep  the  power  behind  it.  It  will  be  worth- 
less agreement  on  our  part  if  we  have  not  a  ship  or  a  soldier 
that  we  can  contribute  to  the  war,  if  war  there  ought  to  be, 
for  the  maintenance  of  that  peace.  And  it  absolutely  requires 
that  we  shall  build  up  a  force,  a  potential  power  of  arms, 
commensurate  with  our  size,  our  numbers,  our  wealth,  our 
dignity,  our  part  among  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

There  is  just  one  other  sentence  of  this  speech  about  which 
I  wish  to  say  a  word,  and  that  is  the  declaration  that  the 
peace  must  be  a  peace  without  victory.  Now,  I  sympathize 
with  that.  But  the  peace  that  the  President  describes 
involves  the  absolute  destruction  and  abandonment  of  the 
principles  upon  which  this  war  was  begun.  It  does  not  say 
"  Servia  ",  it  does  not  say  "  Belgium  ",  but  there  the  chosen 
head  of  the  American  people  has  declared  the  principles  of  the 
American  democracy  in  unmistakable  terms;  has  declared  for 
the  independence  and  equal  rights  of  all  small  and  weak 
nations;  has  declared  for  a  Monroe  Doctrine  of  the  whole 
world  precluding  all  nations  from  interfering  with  the  inde- 
pendent control  of  its  own  affairs  by  every  small  nation,  from 
taking  away  the  territory  of  other  nations,  from  attempting 
to  exercise  the  coercion  of  superior  power  over  other  nations, 
for  disarmament,  for  the  reduction  of  these  mighty  armies 
and  navies.  And  every  word  of  that  declaration,  which  I 


26  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

believe  truly  represents  the  conscience  and  judgment  of  the 
American  people,  denounces  the  sacrifice  of  Belgium  and  of 
Servia  and  the  principles  upon  which  they  were  made. 

Now  one  side  of  that  is  the  declaration  that  peace  must 
be  without  victory.  Suppose  that  such  a  peace  cannot  be  made 
without  victory,  which  is  the  superior  ?  Which  is  to  obtain  ? 
Of  course,  the  great  end  and  the  choice  of  means  becomes 
infinitely  subordinate.  If  that  peace,  the  peace  that  enthrones 
in  the  world  principles  of  individual  liberty  and  national 
right,  and  national  subjection  to  the  laws  of  morals  can  be 
obtained  without  any  further  military  pressure,  then,  thank 
God  for  it.  But  if  it  cannot  be  obtained  without  such 
further  military  pressure  as  to  end  in  victory,  then  let  us 
pray  for  the  victory. 

It  is  one  of  the  best  qualities  of  human  nature  that  makes 
us  as  we  enjoy  the  blessings  of  freedom  of  intellect,  freedom 
of  religion,  freedom  of  action,  look  back  with  gratitude  to 
the  men  who  sacrificed  themselves  in  the  long  struggle  of  the 
ages  for  these  things.  Whether  they  be  martyrs  at  the  stake, 
or  Cameronians  in  the  Highlands  of  Scotland,  or  Huguenots 
in  the  Gvennes,  or  lawyers  pleading  for  justice  against 
popular  clamor  and  disapproval,  or  brave  men  fighting  in  the 
defense  of  their  country's  liberty,  we  are  all  grateful  to  them 
because  our  blessings  came  from  their  noble  sacrifice. 

My  friends,  so  sure  am  I  that  liberty  and  security  in  this 
land  of  ours  depend  upon  the  destruction  and  abandonment 
of  the  hated  principle  of  national  aggrandizement  and 
immorality,  and  the  enthronement  of  the  principles  of 
national  responsibility  and  morality,  that  for  all  the  countless 
generations  to  come  after  us  in  our  dear  land,  I  am  grateful 
with  all  my  heart  to  those  men  who  are  fighting  in  the 
trenches  hi  France  and  Belgium  and  Russia  and  Italy  and 
the  Balkans  today  for  the  liberty  and  peace  of  my  children's 
children. 


AMERICA  ON  TRIAL 

ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE   UNION  LEAGUE   CLUB,   NEW  YORK 
MARCH   20,   1917 

I  HAVE  a  deep  conviction  that  we  none  of  us,  not  one  of  us 
appreciates  how  serious  the  conditions  are  which  confront 
us  —  not  one  of  us  really  understands  how  fraught  with  good 
or  ill,  with  perpetuity  for  our  institutions,  or  with  the  ruin  of 
our  country,  is  the  course  of  the  American  people  within  the 
next  few  months. 

It  is  difficult,  in  the  midst  of  a  great  crisis,  to  feel  how  great 
it  is,  but  no  one  need  suppose  that  this  mighty  war  which  has 
shaken  the  world  and  which  has  involved  all  the  continents 
but  ours,  will  leave  the  world  as  it  was  on  the  first  of  August, 
1914. 

We  are  passing  into  a  new  world,  with  the  new  duties  and 
new  dangers,  and  we  must  confront  our  future,  not  with  com- 
fortable assurance  that  everything  is  to  be  as  it  has  been,  but 
with  a  clear  and  alert  appreciation  of  what  we  are  to  meet. 

The  situation  is  a  very  extraordinary  one.  Germany  is 
making  war  upon  us.  There  may  not  be  technically  a  war 
because  it  may  be  that  it  takes  two  to  produce  that;  but 
Germany  is  making  war  upon  us,  and  we  are  all  waiting  to  see 
whether  we  are  to  take  it  "  lying  down."  It  is  either  war  or 
it  is  submission  to  oppression. 

Gradually  a  feeling  is  making  its  appearance,  a  restiveness 
of  the  people  of  the  country.  Tens  of  thousands  of  young 
men  are  seeking  opportunity  to  prepare  themselves  for  mili- 
tary service  —  to  drill,  to  get  the  A  B  C  of  the  service  in 
order  that  they  may  do  their  duty  by  the  country  when  the 

27 


28  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

actual  fighting  comes.  Commercial  bodies,  manufacturing 
bodies,  professional  bodies  are  meeting  and  discussing,  all 
over  the  country,  what  they  can  do.  There  are  multitudes 
of  American  citizens  who  are  asking  "  What  can  I  do  for  my 
country  in  this  grave  crisis  ?  " 

They  can  do  nothing  except  through  the  executive  depart- 
ments at  Washington.  Nothing.  No  ship  can  sail;  no  regi- 
ment can  march;  no  gun  can  be  fired;  no  insult  or  injury  can 
be  repelled  except  through  the  executive  departments  at 
Washington. 

What  is  there  we  can  do  ?  Only  this:  We  can  perform  the 
duty  of  a  free,  self-governing  people,  by  speaking  in  clear  and 
certain  tones,  so  that  the  spirit  and  the  purpose  and  the  will 
of  a  free  people  may  be  heard  in  Washington  and  our  Govern- 
ment may  know  that  the  American  people  will  be  behind  it, 
supporting  it,  approving  it,  sustaining  it  in  maintaining  the 
honor  and  the  integrity  and  the  independence  and  the  free- 
dom of  our  republic. 

My  diagnosis  of  the  situation  is  that  the  President  wants 
to  hear  from  the  people.  He  has  said  so  many  times.  He 
wants  to  hear  whether  the  people  of  the  United  States  want 
him  to  go  on  and  act.  Let  us  answer  to  his  want  and  tell  him 
that  the  American  people  do  want  the  Government  not  to 
discuss,  and  plan,  and  talk  about  what  is  going  to  be  done, 
but  to  act.  Let  us  say  to  him,  and  if  we  say  it,  others  will  say 
it  also,  that  we  wish  all  the  powers  he  has  now  to  be  exer- 
cised; and  let  us  say  to  Congress  —  and  if  we  say  it  others 
will  say  it  also  —  that  we  wish  them  to  give  to  the  Executive 
all  the  additional  powers  that  may  be  found  needed  for  the 
exercise  of  the  entire  force  of  this  great  nation  for  the  support 
of  its  independence  and  its  honor. 

It  is  not  merely  a  question  as  to  whether  ships  shall  be 
sunk,  it  is  not  merely  a  question  as  to  whether  our  merchant 


AMERICA  ON  TRIAL  29 

vessels  shall  navigate  the  seas  or  lie  up  in  their  ports;  it  is 
far  broader  and  more  far-reaching  than  that.  Where  are  we 
to  be  when  this  war  ends  ?  What  is  going  to  happen  to  us 
then  ?  Understand  that  no  considerations  of  treaty  faith  or 
of  international  law,  or  of  peaceful  assurance,  play  any  more 
a  part  in  determining  what  one  nation  is  to  do  to  another. 
The  solemn  treaty  for  the  protection  of  Belgium  was  turned 
into  a  scrap  of  paper,  and  the  same  principle  which  was 
applied  to  Belgium  has  now  been  applied  to  us.  When  our 
ships  were  sunk  the  supreme  right  of  a  powerful  nation's 
interest  was  declared  to  be  superior  to  all  obligations  of  treaty 
and  of  law,  and  of  peaceful  assurance,  and  of  humanity,  and 
that  is  what  we  have  to  meet,  and  we  must  face  it. 

Consider  this :  the  population  of  the  world  has  doubled  in 
the  last  eighty  years;  the  pressure  of  population  is  surging 
over  the  boundaries  of  national  territory;  if  the  same  rate  of 
population  growth  continues  during  the  next  century, 
instead  of  seventeen  hundred  millions  of  inhabitants  in  the 
world  there  will  be  four  thousand  millions.  The  rapidly 
increasing  population  of  Germany,  thrusting  out  over  her 
boundaries,  sought  colonies  all  over  the  world.  Colonies 
were  not  enough,  and  the  war  that  was  forced  upon  Europe 
has  been  characterized  and  explained  by  the  formal  German 
manifesto  in  which  peace  was  offered.  The  German  Govern- 
ment said,  "  We  were  forced  to  take  the  sword  for  justice  and 
the  liberty  of  national  evolution  ",  which  means  evolution 
into  the  territory  of  others.  The  great  east,  the  Orient,  the 
hundreds  of  millions  of  the  Orient,  are  multiplying  with 
amazing  rapidity,  and  they  also  seek  liberty  of  national 
evolution.  Africa  has  been  partitioned,  Asia  has  been  par- 
titioned, Europe  is  occupied,  Australasia  is  occupied;  what 
remains  but  America,  that  vast  region,  from  Tierra  del  Fuego 
to  the  Caribbean,  which  has  been  protected  heretofore  by  the 


30  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

Monroe  Doctrine  ?  What  remains  for  the  pressure  of  surplus 
population,  and  the  liberty  of  national  evolution,  but  that 
thinly-peopled  and  undefended  territory  ? 

That  is  what  we  have  got  to  face  when  this  war  is  over. 
And  where  then  is  our  Monroe  Doctrine  ?  What  is  it  worth 
without  force  behind  it  ?  And  if  the  Monroe  Doctrine  fails, 
if  that  is  ignored,  with  a  German  naval  station  in  the  Carib- 
bean and  an  Asiatic  naval  station  in  lower  California,  the 
Panama  Canal  is  as  worthless  to  us  for  strategic  purposes  as 
is  the  Dardanelles  to  Russia  today.  Then  we  will  be  face  to 
face  with  the  situation  in  which  France  has  been  for  the  last 
forty  years,  with  strong,  aggressive  military  powers  on  our 
borders. 

The  letter  of  Herr  Zimmerman  to  Mexico,  proposing  the 
alliance  of  Mexico  and  Japan  for  the  dismemberment  of  this 
union,  was  not  a  dream.  It  was  an  uncautious  exhibition  of  a 
purpose  —  a  settled  purpose  which  has  been  thought  out  and 
which  is  being  worked  out  and  which  will  continue  to  be 
worked  out  if  possible  until  this  country  stands  alone  and 
defenseless  against  immediate  and  contiguous  superior 
military  power. 

Now  I  am  not  talking  about  the  will  of  this  man  or  that; 
I  am  talking  about  the  great  movements  of  population.  I  am 
talking  about  those  mighty  forces  which  have  in  all  history 
changed  the  face  of  the  civilized  world  and  set  up  and  torn 
down  nations.  That  mighty  stream  of  mankind  will  follow 
the  line  of  least  resistance,  and  unless  we  are  able  to  defend  our 
rights,  unless  it  is  clearly  understood  that  we  will  defend 
our  rights,  it  will  flow  over  us. 

The  serious  thing  for  us  today  is  that  we  are  on  trial.  The 
question  whether  the  American  people  are  competent  to 
defend  their  rights  is  being  tried  out  now,  and  if  we  fail  in  the 
trial  our  rights  will  disappear.  As  Ambassador  Gerard  says 


AMERICA  ON  TRIAL  31 

truly,  if  we  had  a  million  men  under  arms,  we  would  not  be  so 
near  the  edge  of  war.  If  it  is  understood  that  this  hundred 
million  of  people  are  animated  by  a  common  spirit,  that  they 
have  the  courage  and  the  devotion  which  founded  this  free 
republic,  no  one  will  seek  to  prevail  against  us;  but  if  it  is 
understood  that  we  are  a  weak,  flabby,  divided,  and  indif- 
ferent people,  who  can  be  insulted  and  assaulted  and  abused 
with  impunity,  then  the  tide  flows  over  us  and  we  are  gone. 
Our  country  is  gone.  Our  Union  is  gone.  Our  liberty  is  gone. 

Make  no  mistake:  Unless  we  demonstrate  now  that  we 
have  the  courage  and  the  power  to  defend  ourselves  against 
aggression,  we  will  speedily  reach  the  point  where  we  cannot 
defend  ourselves  against  aggression!  We  have  been  very 
unresponsive  to  a  voice  that  should  have  called  to  us  in  the 
names  of  our  fathers.  We  have  stood  dull  and  indifferent, 
while  the  peoples  of  Europe  have  been  fighting  against  the 
negation  of  everything  that  makes  America  what  it  is.  We 
have  stood  dull  and  unresponsive  to  England  and  France, 
and  to  Russia  —  now  being  revivified  and  glorified,  thank 
God,  while  the  spirit  of  democracy  has  been  struggling  to 
defend  itself  against  the  spirit  of  military  despotism  and  the 
principles  of  absolute  control  by  government  over  human  life 
and  human  liberty. 

We  have  forgotten  the  mission  of  America  for  liberty  and 
justice.  We  have  rejoiced  in  our  prosperity.  We  have 
passed  on  the  other  side  while  men  have  suffered  and  died  for 
the  principles  that  our  fathers  taught  us;  and  now  it  has  been 
brought  home  to  us  with  a  last  appeal.  I  remember  that 
Horace  Mann,  just  before  the  Civil  War  said,  "  The  time  has 
come  to  learn  whether  our  Union  is  a  rope  of  sand  or  a  band 
of  steel."  The  time  has  come  now,  in  the  inexorable  course  of 
fate,  for  the  American  people  to  learn  whether  there  still 
lives  in  this  republic  the  true  spirit  of  a  free  democracy,  or 


32  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

whether  we  are  merely  a  great  aggregation  of  prosperous 
people,  fit  only  to  be  a  prey  to  the  domination  of  an  oppres- 
sor. Now,  if  our  voice  can  be  heard,  if  we  can  do  something, 
anything,  to  make  our  Government  feel  that  the  free  and 
loyal  people  of  America  want  it  to  assert  the  principles  of 
American  liberty  and  freedom,  and  to  assert  them  with  the 
power  of  this  great  people,  for  God's  sake,  let  us  do  it! 


THE  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE 
WORLD  CRISIS 

ADDRESS  AS  CHAIRMAN  OF  A  PATRIOTIC  MASS  MEETING 

MADISON  SQUARE  GARDEN,  NEW  YORK 

MARCH  22,  1917 

IN  all  this  vast  assemblage,  there  are  no  parties  and  no 
partisans.  We  are  all  Americans.  We  come  to  exercise 
the  right  and  perform  the  duty  of  citizens  of  a  great  self- 
governing  republic,  to  voice,  so  far  as  in  us  lies,  the  people's 
mind  upon  the  fateful  issues  of  this  present  time. 

We  come  not  to  find  fault  or  to  criticize.  We  come  to  turn 
our  faces  towards  the  Government  of  our  choice,  the  Govern- 
ment, the  President  and  the  Congress,  on  whom  weigh  the 
terrible  burdens  of  decision  and  action  in  the  issue  of  peace 
or  war,  and  in  the  service  of  that  freedom  which  can  be  main- 
tained, it  now  seems,  only  by  war.  In  this  government  by 
the  people,  it  must  be  the  people  themselves  who  act  through 
the  President  and  the  Congress. 

Autocrats  with  great  standing  armies  can  make  war  as 
they  choose,  because  they  have  but  to  order  and  their  regi- 
ments march;  but  in  a  democracy  war  cannot  be  made  except 
as  the  people  will  that  it  shall  be  made.  And  we  are  here  to 
bear  the  burden  of  freedom,  in  raising  our  voice  as  to  what 
freedom  demands  in  meeting  the  war  that  is  now  being  waged 
against  us.  We  do  not  underestimate  the  gravity  of  the 
situation  in  which  our  country  finds  itself.  Our  country  has 
been  ordered —  ordered  to  leave  the  seas;  ordered  off  the  seas 
that  are  ours  equally  with  all  the  other  nations  of  the  earth; 
ordered  by  the  autocrat  of  Germany  to  leave  those  seas  our 
fathers  crossed  in  their  frail  barks  in  search  of  the  freedom 
that  they  set  up  on  this  continent;  ordered  to  leave  those 

33 


34  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

seas  that  the  commerce  of  America  has  whitened  with  its 
sails  for  more  than  a  century;  and  our  country  has  refused 
to  obey  the  order. 

We  have  been  attacked  with  arms  for  refusing;  our  ships 
have  been  sunk;  our  people  have  been  murdered;  our  men, 
our  women,  our  children  have  been  sent  to  their  death  by  shot 
and  shell  and  torpedo  sped  from  German  men-of-war  because 
we  refused  to  obey  the  order  of  Germany. 

And  what  we  are  here  to  speak  to  our  Government  about 
is  the  question,  —  not  a  question  with  us,  but  the  question 
whether  we  shall  meet  that  attack  by  manly  and  brave 
defense,  or  by  submission,  —  submission.  It  is  no  question 
now  of  peace;  it  is  no  question  now  of  patience;  it  is  a  simple 
question  whether  or  not  we  shall  submit  —  crushed  into 
submission  —  crushed  into  submission  by  the  arms  of  the 
Germany  which  orders  us  off  the  seas.  It  is  not  a  mere  ques- 
tion of  ships,  it  is  not  a  mere  question  of  leaving  the  seas,  it 
is  not  a  mere  question  of  abandoning  those  rights  of  our 
independence;  it  is  a  far  deeper  and  more  serious  question 
than  that. 

All  history  teaches  us  that  the  rich  and  defenseless  peoples, 
the  peoples  who  are  too  luxurious,  too  fond  of  their  comfort, 
their  prosperity,  their  wealth,  their  ease,  to  make  sacrifice 
for  their  liberty,  surely  fall  a  prey  to  the  aggressor.  So  Rome 
fell  at  the  hands  of  barbarians,  not  more  barbarous,  not  more 
cruel,  not  more  arrogant  and  overbearing  than  the  military 
class  that  rules  Germany  today.  So  Persia  fell,  with  all  her 
magnificence,  before  the  arms  of  Alexander.  So  poor,  peace- 
ful China  fell,  three  hundred  years  ago,  before  the  invading 
Manchus;  and  but  now,  under  the  pressure  of  the  great 
forces  of  freedom  brought  into  the  world,  the  poor  Chinese 
are  beginning  to  lay  aside  the  shaven  head  and  the  pigtail 
that  were  the  marks  of  their  subjugation  to  the  conquering 
race.  So  we  will  fall  if  our  luxury,  our  wealth,  our  ease, 


our  unwillingness  for  sacrifice,  make  us  unable  to  defend  our 
independence  and  our  liberty!  All  history  shows  that  to 
defend  a  nation's  rights  you  must  begin  at  the  beginning. 
One  submission  leads  to  new  aggression,  and  one  submission 
makes  a  second  submission  easier;  and  so,  step  by  step, 
before  a  people  knows,  unwilling  to  realize  the  gravity  and 
importance  of  each  successive  infringement  of  its  rights, 
before  it  knows,  its  rights  are  gone,  and  it  is  a  dependent  and 
subject  people. 

We  did  think  a  few  years  ago  that  the  reign  of  law  had 
come  into  the  world;  we  did  think  that  the  rules  of  law 
that  all  civilized  nations  had  agreed  to  be  bound  by,  were  a 
protection  to  the  peaceful,  to  the  weak;  we  did  think  that  the 
faith  of  treaties  was  a  protection;  but  we  have  had  a  sad 
awakening.  Neither  the  rules  of  law  nor  the  faith  of  treaties 
nor  the  instincts  of  humanity,  nor  the  teachings  of  civiliza- 
tion, nor  the  requirements  of  religion,  stand  in  the  way  of 
those  powers  that  are  now  seeking  in  the  world,  with  fire  and 
sword,  what  they  call  the  liberty  of  national  evolution,  the 
liberty  to  send  their  increasing  population  out,  and  seize  the 
territory  and  subjugate  the  inhabitants  of  other  lands.  No 
more  the  protection  of  treaty  or  of  law  guards  the  people  of 
America  round  about.  The  doctrine  that  a  state  can  do  no 
wrong,  the  doctrine  that  a  state  is  entitled  to  take  with  the 
strong  arm  what  its  interest  requires,  has  been  declared  and 
is  supported  by  one-half  the  military  power  of  the  world; 
and  if  the  present  war  in  Europe  ends  without  a  victory  over 
the  nations  which  are  declaring  and  acting  upon  that  hateful 
doctrine,  there  will  be  no  peace  nor  safety  for  free  democ- 
racies in  this  world,  unless  all  free  countries  be  turned  into 
armed  camps.  Still  more  than  that,  whether  Germany  be 
conquered  or  not,  if  a  peace  be  made  in  Europe;  if  a  peace 
be  made  and  America  has  no  friends  in  the  making  of  it  to 
include  — 


36  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

[Here  occurred  an  interruption  by  some  of  the  audience 
followed  by  expulsion.] 

The  first  overt  act  by  the  agents  of  the  delightful  German 
plot  to  break  up  this  meeting  has  made  itself  heard  and  is 
disposed  of.  There  are  some  more  of  them  here.  But  let  me 
tell  them  that  they  must  not  push  the  patience  of  Americans 
too  far. 

I  say  once  more  about  the  war  in  Europe:  if  peace  be  made 
there  and  no  friend  of  America  includes  in  its  terms  any- 
thing to  protect  these  western  continents,  the  whole  force 
of  "  national  evolution  "  into  the  territory  of  others  will  be 
directed  towards  the  vast  territories,  the  immense  wealth, 
of  undefended  America. 

Africa  is  taken  up,  Asia  is  taken  up;  there  is  nothing  left 
for  the  spoiler  but  the  Americas,  if  they  are  not  defended. 
Here  we  stand  with  our  Monroe  Doctrine  that  has  so  long 
protected  us  and  the  South  and  Central  American  nations. 
What  will  that  be  worth  against  the  principles  of  national 
conduct  that  invaded  Belgium,  unless  we  are  ready  to  defend 
it  ?  If  we  yield  our  rights  in  weak  submission  now,  will  we 
be  ready  to  act  when  Germany  establishes  a  naval  base  in 
the  Caribbean,  and  some  other  military  country  establishes 
a  base  in  southern  California,  both  commanding  the  Panama 
Canal,  and  making  that  Canal  absolutely  worthless  for  our 
own  protection  ? 

If  we  yield  in  weak  submission  now,  the  Monroe  Doctrine 
is  not  worth  the  paper  it  is  printed  on,  from  this  time  forward. 
And  so  the  question  is  not  about  ships,  not  about  saving  the 
seas,  but  it  is  whether  America  has  the  spirit  and  the  power 
to  defend  her  rights,  to  defend  her  independence,  her  liberty, 
her  peace,  her  safety,  her  wealth,  her  homes. 

The  question  is  not  merely  whether  we  shall  submit,  but 
whether  the  world  shall  be  made  to  understand  that  America, 
with  its  hundred  million  of  people,  with  its  vast  wealth,  with 


UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WORLD  CRISIS      37 

-its  great  traditions,  with  all  the  independent  spirit  of  the 
greatest  free  democracy,  has  the  power  and  the  courage  to 
defend  herself! 

I  hate  war,  but  I  welcome  the  coming  of  the  inevitable  at 
the  beginning.  I  do  not  want  to  defend  my  house  by  putting 
off  an  attack  during  the  brief  minutes  that  I  can  spend  under 
the  bed!  I  say  that  upon  the  issue  of  the  war  in  Europe 
hangs  the  question  whether  America  shall,  at  the  close  of 
that  war,  be  turned  into  one  armed  camp,  or  whether  America 
shall  be  a  subject  nation.  There  is  no  nation  on  earth  —  not 
England,  nor  France,  nor  Belgium,  nor  Italy,  nor  Russia, 
with  a  greater  stake  in  the  success  of  the  Allies  in  this 
war  against  German  militarism,  than  the  United  States.  We 
are  able  to  hold  this  peaceful  meeting  —  with  a  few  weak 
explosions  —  and  why  ?  Because  we  are  protected  by  the 
navies  and  armies  of  the  Allies! 

A  VOICE:  That's  a  lie! 

[Followed  by  the  ejection  of  the  interrupter.] 

If  we  were  not  protected  by  those  armies  and  navies  across 
the  Atlantic,  German  ships  would  be  outside  of  our  harbor, 
for  Germany  never  hesitates  to  strike.  The  self-respect,  the 
dignity  and  the  honor  of  our  country  require  that  we  shall  not 
longer  hide  under  the  protection  of  others,  but  shall  proceed 
to  protect  ourselves ! 

One  thing  more.  Every  American,  every  true  American 
heart  should  respond  with  joy,  amid  its  sorrow,  to  the  feeling 
that  if  we  enter  this  war  to  do  our  part  towards  bringing  about 
the  victory  that  is  so  important  to  us,  we  shall  be  fighting 
over  again  the  battle  of  the  American  democracy,  along  with 
the  democracy  of  England,  the  democracy  of  France,  the 
democracy  of  Italy,  and  now,  God  be  praised,  the  great 
democracy  of  Russia;  fighting  for  the  principle  of  free  self- 
government  against  the  principle  of  old-time  autocracy  and 
military  power;  and  every  American  should  be  at  heart, 


38  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

and  with  his  voice  and  his  effort,  his  sacrifice  and  his  prayers, 
aiding  in  that  great  battle  of  the  ages. 

Our  fathers  lit  the  torch:  it  was  our  fight  for  the  freedom 
of  self-governing  democracies  that  unloosed  the  bonds  upon 
the  people  of  England;  it  was  our  success  that  gave  courage 
and  hope  to  the  men  of  France,  who  cast  down  the  Bourbons 
and  set  up  the  republic.  No  man  has  fought  for  liberty 
during  this  century  and  a  half,  in  all  this  world,  who  has  not 
been  cheered  and  strengthened  by  the  example  and  the  spirit 
of  our  free  America;  and  if  that  spirit  is  not  dead,  as  I  know 
it  is  not,  that  spirit  is  with  the  Allies  who  are  fighting  our 
battles! 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY 
IN  THE  WAR 

SPEECH  BEFORE  THE  NEW  YORK  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 
APRIL  9,  1917 

The  preceding  pages  contain  several  recent  addresses  by  Mr.  Root  dealing  with 
the  momentous  problems  confronting  the  United  States  and  growing  out  of  the 
European  war.  Following  the  President's  message  to  Congress  on  April  2,  1917, 
and  the  declaration  of  a  state  of  war  against  the  Imperial  German  Government  on 
April  6,  a  meeting  was  held  in  the  Republican  Club  of  New  York  on  April  9,  1917, 
at  which  the  principal  address  was  made  by  Mr.  Root.  It  is  an  appeal  to  friends  and 
associates  to  forget  politics,  to  stand  loyally  behind  the  Administration,  and  to 
unite  their  forces  to  the  end  that  the  war  into  which  the  United  States  has  entered  in 
behalf  of  democracy,  humanity,  and  international  justice,  may  be  waged  by  a  united 
country,  with  all  its  resources,  to  a  successful  conclusion.  Unfortunately,  Mr.  Root 
had  prepared  no  notes  of  his  address  and  there  was  no  regular  reporter  present;  the 
editors  are  compelled  to  rely  upon  the  incomplete  newspaper  accounts  of  what  was 
undoubtedly  one  of  the  most  effective  of  Mr.  Root's  public  addresses. 

THE  war  upon  which  our  country  has  now  entered  is  not 
over  the  question  of  ships  or  whether  Americans  shall 
insist  upon  their  right  to  travel  the  high  seas.  These  are  but 
illustrative  and  symbolical  of  the  great  issues.  The  struggle 
is  between  liberty  and  justice  on  one  side  and  oppression  and 
barbarism  on  the  other.  It  has  been  growing  more  and  more 
manifest  during  the  past  two  and  a  half  years  that  the  conflict 
raging  in  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa,  between  the  Central 
European  Powers  and  the  Allies,  is  a  conflict  for  the  control 
of  the  world.  From  all  the  confusing  statements  and  mass  of 
documents  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  there  has  gradually 
emerged  the  ascertained  certainty  that  Germany,  under  the 
leadership  of  the  military  caste  of  Prussia,  has  entered  upon  a 
great  undertaking  for  which  she  has  been  preparing  for  more 
than  a  generation  with  but  one  object,  the  hegemony  of  the 
world.  The  Allies  with  whom  we  have  now  ranged  ourselves 

39 


40  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

are  fighting  to  prevent  being  reduced  to  subjection  by  the 
military  power  of  Germany. 

Our  declaration  of  war  now  has  saved  the  American  people 
from  irretrievable  disaster  immediately  after  the  conclusion 
of  the  war  in  Europe.  It  has  become  startlingly  evident  that 
if  Germany  wins  this  war,  the  same  principles  under  which  she 
treated  the  covenant  with  Belgium  as  a  scrap  of  paper,  and 
laid  waste  and  sacked  and  burned  the  towns,  and  murdered 
the  people  of  that  poor  and  peaceful  country,  and  under  which 
she  has  violated  every  rule  of  international  law  and  the  obli- 
gations of  treaties,  will  be  applied  by  her  to  the  rest  of  the 
world.  The  issue  of  the  war  is  the  issue  of  submission  to 
the  same  principle  of  conduct  which  took  the  lives  of  women 
and  children  in  Belgium. 

Even  though  Germany  may  not  be  successful  in  this  war, 
she  will  still  remain  the  Germany  of  seventy  millions  of 
people.  They  will  still  be  there.  If,  after  the  war,  Germany 
is  left  with  her  power  intact,  if  the  terms  of  peace  provide  no 
terms  for  the  western  continent,  then  Germany  will  be  free  to 
seize  her  only  opportunity  to  recoup  the  damages  of  the  war. 
There  will  be  but  one  avenue  in  which  she  can  continue  her 
career  of  expansion,  and  that  will  be  through  the  broad,  rich 
fields  of  the  western  continent.  What  then  will  become  of 
the  Monroe  Doctrine  ?  If  we  shrink  from  the  test  now,  what 
will  we  do  if  Germany  establishes  a  base  in  the  Caribbean  at 
the  very  entrance  to  the  Panama  Canal  ?  If  we  do  nothing 
now,  we  will  do  nothing  then.  If  we  do  not  get  ready  now, 
we  will  not  be  ready  then.  If  we  are  not  stirred  to  action 
now,  we  will  not  be  stirred  to  action  then.  If  such  a  base  be 
established  on  our  border  as  a  basis  for  new  aggression,  how 
long  will  it  be  before  we  find  ourselves  in  the  condition  of  a 
subject  people,  unready  to  defend  our  liberties  ?  Ordinary 
intelligence  should  make  the  country  provide  now  against 
that  certain  result  in  the  future. 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY   41 

The  war,  however,  is  more  than  a  conflict  between  nations. 
It  is  a  conflict  between  two  hostile  principles;  the  principle 
of  democracy  which  rests  upon  individual  freedom,  and  the 
principle  of  autocracy  which  rests  upon  military  force.  The 
two  are  as  far  apart  as  freedom  and  slavery.  President 
Lincoln  said  the  country  could  not  endure  half  free  and  half 
slave.  It  is  also  true  that  the  world  cannot  endure  half  free 
and  half  Prussian.  Democracies  cannot  live  in  the  same  world 
with  aggressive  military  autocracies.  To  remain  alongside 
such  a  military  power  means  that  the  democracy  must  sub- 
mit to  the  will  of  the  autocracy,  or  the  democracy  must 
make  itself  always  ready  for  defense  against  attack;  but 
the  conditions  of  modern  war  make  it  impossible  for 
democracy  to  keep  itself  always  prepared  for  defense  against 
attack,  and  to  continue  its  free  democratic  institutions;  for 
the  successful  conduct  of  war  involves  extensive  and  essen- 
tial surrenders  of  individual  liberty.  If  military  autocracies 
are  to  continue,  the  world  must  either  submit  or  must  become 
a  group  of  armed  camps,  inhabited  by  people  who  have  sur- 
rendered their  liberties  to  military  authority.  The  President 
was  right  when  he  said  that  the  world  must  be  made  safe  for 
democracy.  In  order  that  it  shall  be  safe,  the  domination  of 
the  Prussian  caste  must  be  prevented.  We  are  to  fight  for 
that;  we  are  to  fight  for  our  own  liberties  and  the  liberties  of 
all  mankind.  We  are  to  fight  for  the  ideals  of  America,  for  the 
mission  of  America,  for  the  enfranchisement  of  the  world. 

With  this  solemn  and  stupendous  duty  resting  upon  the 
American  people,  with  the  acceptance  of  this  burden  we  must 
be  ready  to  take  our  part.  What  is  our  part;  what  are  our 
duties  ?  We  are  Republicans.  We  have  special  duties  as 
Republicans.  Our  party  was  defeated  at  the  last  election, 
and  the  opposing  party  is  in  possession  of  the  Government. 
Our  first  duty  is  to  control  ourselves;  to  banish  from  our 
hearts  every  feeling  of  partisanship,  of  party  prejudice,  and 


42  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

fill  them  with  patriotism  and  love  of  country,  and  the  sole 
desire  to  do  our  duty  to  our  country.  Criticism  and  fault- 
finding and  discontent  have  been  incidents  of  all  our  wars. 
They  are  incident  to  our  free  and  easy  democracy.  They  will 
come  again  inevitably.  As  we  love  our  country,  we  must  now 
give  to  the  Democratic  administration  our  whole-hearted, 
earnest,  sincere  support.  That  is  the  only  way  we  can  prove 
not  merely  our  love  for  our  country  as  individuals,  but 
demonstrate  that  the  Republican  Party  loves  its  country 
more  than  it  cares  for  place  and  power.  When  the  inevitable 
shortcomings  of  democracy  come  —  as  come  they  must  — 
then  is  the  time  for  stout  hearts  to  stand  by  their  country,  to 
say  that  no  matter  what  mistakes  are  made  we  will  support 
the  Government  of  our  country. 

We  must  sweep  all  partisanship  away.  The  men  in  Wash- 
ington are  our  President,  our  Cabinet,  and  our  Congress,  no 
matter  whose  votes  elected  them.  We  will  stand  by  the 
President  now,  as  we  stood  by  Lincoln  when  the  faint- 
hearted and  the  scurrilous  were  crying  that  the  war  was  a 
failure.  We  will  demonstrate  the  real  patriotism  of  the 
Republican  Party  in  good  repute  and  ill  repute,  in  success, 
in  failure,  come  what  may,  for  the  fate  of  our  country  is 
involved.  Other  countries  change  governments.  England 
has  now  a  coalition  government.  France  has  changed  her 
government  several  times  since  the  war  began.  And  now, 
the  great  Russian  democracy  has  come  into  its  own  and  over- 
thrown the  autocratic  government  which  was  already  bar- 
gaining with  Germany  for  the  preservation  of  autocracy. 
Our  government  cannot  be  changed  between  elections.  For 
four  years  democrats  must  control  in  Washington,  and  we 
must  give  them  as  whole-hearted,  earnest,  sincere  support  as 
if  every  man  there  were  a  Republican.  We  need  no  coalition 
government  to  make  us  loyal.  We  will  make  a  coalition  our- 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY   43 

selves  with  every  Democrat  in  the  country.  The  coalition  of 
the  United  States  will  be  of  all  its  people  to  hold  up  the 
hands  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  no  matter 
which  party  holds  the  reins. 

Only  one  thing  we  will  say  to  the  party  in  power,  —  let  us 
have  a  real  war.  Let  us  lose  no  opportunity  in  public  or  in 
private  to  urge  and  insist  upon  a  vigorous  and  real  war. 
There  must  be  no  dillydallying  or  half  measures  nor  any 
giving  in  to  peace  terms  until  democracy  is  triumphant.  Let 
us  so  conduct  this  war  that  no  nation  will  ever  again  think 
that  it  is  a  light  or  an  easy  thing  to  enter  upon  war  with  the 
United  States. 

Speeding  the  completion  of  the  naval  program  and  the 
upbuilding  of  a  great  army  are  the  principal  tasks  imme- 
diately ahead  of  the  United  States.  Here  there  must  be  no 
jealousies  between  states,  no  quibbling  over  whether  gover- 
nors shall  retain  the  appointing  power.  It  is  our  duty  to 
make  a  national  army,  an  army  single  hi  purpose  and  sym- 
pathy, responsible  to  one  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
American  Army,  and  without  any  of  the  bickerings  that  have 
wrecked  so  many  fair  causes.  There  should  be  a  system  of 
universal  military  service.  In  that  vigorous  war  which  we 
advocate,  one  thing  ought  to  be  done  at  the  earliest  practi- 
cable day.  An  American  army,  great  if  possible,  small  if 
must  be,  should  be  put  on  the  battle-line  of  France  and 
Belgium,  so  that  all  the  world  will  know  that  American 
democracy  is  really  fighting  for  the  principles  of  American 
freedom,  side  by  side  with  England,  France,  Russia,  and  the 
other  allied  countries,  in  the  world  war  for  the  freedom  of 
the  human  race;  and  no  one  may  doubt  that  we  are  with  our 
friends,  heart  and  soul,  ready  to  offer  our  sacrifice  in  the 
great  cause  in  which  we  have  so  much  to  gain  and  so  much  to 
lose.  The  honor  and  dignity  of  our  country  depend  upon  the 


44  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

part  it  now  plays.  We  have  got  to  show  that  the  United 
States  is  a  nation  and  not  a  mere  aggregation  of  people.  The 
United  States  must  fight  with  all  its  resources  of  men  and 
money,  with  all  its  inventive  and  business  genius,  with  all  its 
heart  and  soul. 

The  war  cannot  be  ended  with  anything  else  than  the  com- 
plete overthrow  of  autocracy. 


GERMANY,  RUSSIA,  AND   THE 
UNITED  STATES 

ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  UNION  LEAGUE  CLUB,  NEW  YORK 
AUGUST  15,  1917 

Following  Mayor  MitcheFs  reception  to  the  Russian  Mission  at  the  New  York 
City  Hall  on  August  15, 1917,  and  the  luncheon  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  the 
City  of  New  York  on  the  same  day,  the  Mission  was  tendered  a  reception  by  the 
Union  League  Club  in  the  evening.  The  members  of  the  Mission  were  presented  to 
the  members  of  the  club  by  the  president,  the  Honorable  Charles  E.  Hughes,  who 
then  introduced  the  head  of  the  Mission  in  the  following  words: 

This  is  an  occasion  of  unique  interest.  Our  fellow-member,  whom  we  have 
long  honored  and  loved,  returns  to  us  from  a  service  of  vast  importance,  most 
admirably  and  nobly  performed.  He  has  received  the  official  welcome  of  the 
city;  he  has  been  greeted  by  the  most  important  commercial  body  of  this 
metropolis;  but  we  desire  to  add  to  these  greetings,  in  which  we  are  glad  to  have 
had  a  share,  the  more  intimate  welcome  that  comes  from  his  old-time  friends 
in  this  Union  League  Club. 

When  it  was  announced  that  the  President  had  selected  Mr.  Root  to  go  as 
the  head  of  this  important  mission  to  Russia,  we  were  all  extremely  glad  that 
the  best  thought  of  the  nation  was  to  find  expression  through  this  eminent 
statesman.  I  am  sure,  however,  that  the  friends  of  Mr.  Root  had  some  little 
misgiving,  because  at  that  time  we  were  filled  with  uncertainty  and  appre- 
hension. The  age  which  his  appearance  belies  was  about  to  be  put  to  a  severe 
test.  He  might  well  have  sought  exemption  from  such  an  arduous  task;  but 
whatever  was  in  the  minds  of  his  friends  was  not  in  his  mind.  To  him  there 
was  but  one  thought,  and  that  was,  that  any  service  within  his  power  to  render 
to  the  nation  he  would  render,  here  or  anywhere.  That,  gentlemen,  according 
to  place  and  opportunity  and  talent,  is  the  very  essence  of  patriotism,  and  the 
nation  has  no  abler  statesman  and  no  finer  patriot  than  Elihu  Root. 

Now  he  has  returned.  Our  misgivings,  as  is  usual  with  most  of  our  mis- 
givings, were  without  warrant.  He  has  performed  the  most  difficult  task  that 
could  be  set  to  him  to  perform,  that  of  adding  luster  to  a  name  already  so 
renowned.  He  returns  to  us  from  this  service,  the  importance  of  which  we  all 
appreciate,  with  a  message.  We  are  glad  to  greet  him  as  a  friend,  but  we  are 
even  more  keen  to  hear  what  he  has  to  say  with  respect  to  conditions  on  the 
other  side.  The  greatest  event  of  this  period  of  extraordinary  events  is  the 
emergence  of  the  people  of  Russia  into  the  responsibilities  and  privileges  and 
enormous  difficulties  of  freedom.  God  forbid  that  any  one  in  the  United  States 

45 


46  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

should  look  askance  at  Russia.  Russia,  our  great  sister  nation,  carries  now  in  no 
small  degree  the  hopes  of  humanity,  and  every  one  whose  heart  is  full  of  the 
intense  desire  that  man  shall  move  forward  to  happier  and  better  days,  that 
freedom  shall  be  world-wide  and  that  there  shall  be  in  the  future  such  an 
organization  in  the  world  as  will  prevent  the  recurrence  of  war,  looks  today  to 
Russia,  full  of  sympathy,  full  of  pride  in  what  has  already  been  accomplished 
under  the  most  extreme  difficulties,  full  of  intense  personal  interest,  with  that 
feeling  of  brotherhood  which  must  possess  us  if  we  are  not  only  to  fight  for 
democracy,  but  to  be  worthy  of  democracy  when  won. 

Now  we  are  here  to  listen  to  a  message  from  one  who  has  been  most  success- 
ful in  interpreting  the  thought  of  America  to  the  people  of  Russia  in  this  crisis. 
He  and  those  who  were  associated  with  him  in  this  mission  have,  it  seems  to  me, 
been  very  successful  in  conveying  our  thought  to  them,  and  it  is  important  that 
they  should  now  from  this  vantage-ground  of  personal  observation,  interpret 
Russia  as  they  have  seen  Russia,  as  they  have  learned  to  know  Russia,  to  us. 
We  are  living  in  a  world  where  the  future  depends  on  our  mutual  understanding 
—  not  on  formal  programs,  not  on  the  formal  engagements  of  nations,  but  upon 
an  understanding  of  aims  which  we  hold  in  common  for  human  betterment. 

It  is  a  peculiar  privilege  to  listen  to  our  distinguished  fellow-member  on  his 
return  from  this  great  errand  on  behalf  of  the  United  States.  It  is  my  great 
pleasure  to  introduce  Mr.  Elihu  Root. 

I  WISH  to  explain  to  my  associates  of  the  Special  Diplo- 
matic Mission  that  some  of  the  nice  things  which  our 
president  has  said  tonight  are  a  matter  of  habit.  He  says 
them  to  me  because  this  is  my  home.  The  gray-headed  old 
men  you  see  about  you  and  I  have  lived  together  in  this 
club,  have  cultivated  and  stimulated  each  other's  patriotism 
here  in  the  atmosphere  created  by  the  founders  of  the  club, 
for  the  last  forty  years,  and  the  younger  members  have  come 
into  the  fellowship  of  the  club  and  have  inherited  the  tradi- 
tion; and  they  say  these  nice  things  because  I  am  theirs  and 
they  are  mine,  and  we  love  each  other,  and  we  have  confi- 
dence each  in  the  other's  love  of  country,  and  sincerity  of 
purpose,  and  willingness  to  sacrifice  and  to  labor  for  the 
common  good  of  our  beloved  country. 

I  am  to  say  something  about  Russia,  and  I  wish  also  to  say 
something  about  America.  I  thought  often  while  in  Russia, 
as  I  watched  the  labors  and  judged  the  mental  state  and 
feelings  of  the  men  who  were  engaged  in  the  hard  task  of 


GERMANY,  RUSSIA,  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES      47 

building  up  the  government  in  Russia,  of  those  men  of  the 
days  of  '63  who  gathered  in  the  old  club  house  in  Union 
Square  to  render  the  same  service  to  the  American  democ- 
racy then  struggling  against  the  impending  danger  of  death 
to  the  Republic. 

I  wish  to  say  to  you  that  I  never  have  seen  a  more  gallant 
fight  with  purer  motives  and  nobler  purpose  than  the  few 
men  who  are  controlling  the  government  of  Russia  today 
have  been  making  against  overwhelming  odds  for  the  free- 
dom of  then*  people  and  the  safety  of  democracy  in  Russia 
and  in  the  world. 

Everything  was  against  them;  the  soldiers  and  the  people, 
the  peasants  who  make  up  eighty-five  per  cent  of  Russia,  had 
lost  a  leader.  They  had  not  been  in  the  habit  of  thinking 
upon  political  questions,  they  had  been  in  the  habit  of  obey- 
ing, and  the  word  which  they  had  obeyed  was  gone.  The 
soldiers  had  lost  the  command  to  follow,  they  had  lost  their 
national  head,  they  had  lost  their  national  flag.  The  laws 
which  received  their  sanction  from  the  Czar,  when  the  Czar 
was  gone,  no  longer  seemed  to  have  moral  obligation.  The 
police  had  disappeared.  The  people  of  Russia  were  practi- 
cally without  government,  for  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment had  no  power  to  execute  a  decree.  Without  police, 
without  law,  their  own  orderly  habits,  their  own  mutual 
consideration  for  the  rights  of  others  alone  remained  to  pre- 
serve then-  respect  for  property  and  life  and  human  rights. 
Throughout  Russia,  with  no  other  safeguard,  order  reigned 
as  perfect  as  reigns  hi  the  United  States  today,  because  the 
people  of  Russia  have  ingrained,  inherent  characteristics, 
qualities  of  character  which  are  necessary  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  free  self-government. 

Germany,  making  common  cause  with  those  extremists 
who  would  break  down  and  destroy  all  industrial  organi- 
zation, all  national  authority,  Germany  carried  on  in  the 


48  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

early  months  of  the  revolution  a  great  propaganda  in  a  score 
of  ways  to  pervert  the  minds  of  the  Russian  people.  Her 
agents  swarmed  over  the  border,  they  spent  money  by  the 
million  in  buying  adherents  to  the  German  cause;  they  pur- 
chased newspapers  and  established  newspapers;  they  dis- 
tributed literature;  their  troops,  under  order,  swarmed  out 
of  the  trenches  with  open  arms  to  fraternize  with  the  Russian 
troops.  They  said  to  them,  "  Why  do  you  fight  us  ?  This 
was  the  Czar's  war,  it  was  not  your  war.  Why  do  you  want 
to  kill  us  who  are  your  friends  ?  WTiy  do  you  want  to  get 
killed  ?  WTiy  not  go  home  and  share  in  the  division  of  the 
land  ?  If  you  do  not  hurry  you  will  get  left,  it  will  all  be  in 
other  hands.  Why  go  on  with  the  Czar's  war,  which  was  not 
your  war  ?  "  And  they  produced  an  effect  on  the  army  of 
Russia  that  made  them  generally,  along  all  the  thousand- 
mile  line,  unwilling  to  fight.  The  Russians  were  tired  of  the 
war,  as  all  the  peoples  of  Europe  are  tired  of  the  war.  And 
when  we  reached  Russia  it  seemed  as  if  the  game  was  over. 
Sagacious  observers  there  said,  "  According  to  all  the  rules 
of  the  game,  Russia  is  out  of  the  war." 

A  few  men,  thoughtful  men,  realized  that  the  erection  of  a 
system  of  free  self-government  according  to  the  life,  the 
customs,  the  spirit  of  Russian  life,  could  never  be  developed 
under  the  suzerainty  of  Germany.  They  realized  that  sub- 
jection to  Germany  meant  the  death  of  Russian  liberty;  and 
they  set  out  to  re-inspire  in  the  Russian  people  a  knowledge, 
a  realization,  a  spirit  of  defense  for  their  newly-won  freedom; 
and  under  the  splendid  leadership  of  Kerensky,  under  the 
wise  and  sagacious  control  of  Nekrasoff  and  Terestchenko 
and  Tseratelli  and  a  score  of  others,  they  gradually  brought 
discipline  back.  Out  of  confusion  and  bewilderment  they 
have  brought  a  knowledge  and  a  realization  of  duty,  and 
Russia  has  found  herself ,  and  has  begun  again  to  fight  for  the 
preservation  of  her  own  freedom. 


GERMANY,  RUSSIA,  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES      49 

Germany  has  appealed  in  Russia,  as  she  has  appealed  in 
America  and  all  over  the  world,  to  all  the  baser  motives  of 
mankind.  She  has  appealed  to  cupidity,  she  has  bought 
men  in  and  out  of  office,  right  and  left,  by  scores.  She  has 
expended  millions  of  money  in  Russia,  as  she  has  here,  to 
buy  treason  for  her  own  benefit.  She  has  appealed  to  pas- 
sion and  prejudice,  to  local  interest  that  quarrels  with  the 
public  good,  to  personal  selfishness  and  ambitions.  Wher- 
ever in  Russia,  wherever  in  this  world  a  baser  motive  was  to 
be  found,  Germany  has  developed  a  feeling  for  it  as  swift 
and  irresistible  as  any  chemical  combinations  that  we  know 
of.  Every  base,  every  despicable,  every  damnable  influence 
that  tends  to  break  down  law  and  order  and  to  frustrate 
noble  purposes  and  great  designs  for  good,  she  has  employed. 
She  has  done  it  in  Russia,  as  she  has  done  it  here,  with  dia- 
bolical ingenuity.  But  in  one  thing  Germany  has  failed; 
she  has  been  incapable  of  measuring,  of  understanding,  the 
great  moral  forces  that  move  mankind,  the  great  moral  force 
leading  modern  civilization  to  higher  and  better  things. 

Germany  could  not  understand  that  love  of  country  and  the 
passionate  desire  for  Italia  Irredenta  would  take  Italy  out  of 
the  Triple  Alliance  and  range  her  against  the  German  armies. 

She  could  not  understand  that  England,  which,  set  in  the 
enjoyment  of  peace  and  wealth,  had  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the 
warning  of  good  old  Lord  Roberts,  that  England  would 
revolt  at  the  shameful  bargain  that  was  proposed  to  Sir 
Edward  Grey,  to  connive,  to  wink  at  the  violations  of  trea- 
ties that  protected  Belgium  and  stand  idly  by  while  poor 
Belgium  was  overrun  with  indescribable  cruelty  and  sav- 
agery. She  could  not  understand  that  down  from  Puritan 
ancestry  and  the  nobility  of  the  Cavaliers  of  many  genera- 
tions, there  came  a  spirit  of  moral  power  in  England  that 
would  array  her  against  the  damnable  wrong  that  Germany 
did  to  Belgium. 


50  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

Germany  could  not  understand  that  the  British  colonies 
had  replaced  the  rule  of  force  that  once  bound  them  to  Eng- 
land by  a  bond  of  sentiment  a  thousand  times  stronger  than 
all  the  red-coats  that  ever  garrisoned  the  citadel  of  Quebec. 

Germany  could  not  understand  that  the  longings  for  free- 
dom and  self-government  of  South  Africa  could  transmute 
the  fairness  and  justice  of  the  final  settlement  of  the  relation 
between  England  and  the  Boers  into  a  feeling  of  loyalty  to 
England  upon  the  part  of  the  Boers. 

Germany  could  not  understand  that  there  was  a  line 
beyond  which  the  free,  rich,  comfortable  people  of  the 
United  States  of  America,  rejoicing  in  their  prosperity  and 
their  comfort,  would  not  pass  —  a  line  at  which  the  ideals 
of  their  fathers  and  an  ingrained  sense  of  devotion  to  the 
liberty  of  mankind  forbade  the  sordid  considerations  of 
prosperity  and  wealth  longer  to  govern  the  free  American 
people. 

Then,  again,  buying  treason  in  Russia,  playing  upon  sor- 
did motives  and  every  degraded  impulse  to  be  found  in 
Russia,  Germany  again  has  failed  to  understand  the  moral 
power  of  that  great  empire,  and  that  great  justice  and  liberty- 
loving  people.  Time  was  but  a  few  months  ago  when  a  regi- 
ment of  Germans  could  have  marched  over  the  border  and 
gone  where  they  would;  but  they  misjudged  the  moral  force 
of  the  Russian  people,  and  they  waited  too  long.  They 
waited  until  the  power  of  regeneration,  so  strong  in  the  Rus- 
sian character,  had  had  time  to  begin  its  work,  and  they  are 
moving  too  late.  I  do  not  know  what  the  fortunes  of  the 
battlefield  may  be,  but  I  do  think  that  the  Russian  people 
have  again  found  themselves,  and  again  begun  one  of  those 
extraordinary  recoveries  which  the  indomitable  spirit  of 
Russia  makes  possible  beyond  the  experience  of  any  other 
race. 


GERMANY,  RUSSIA,  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES      51 

Now  we  have  sent  a  mission  of  congratulation  and  friend- 
ship and  cooperation  to  Russia,  and  we  are  committed  to 
help  Russia.  There  are  many  things  in  which  she  can  be 
helped;  in  money,  for  her  financial  condition  is  bad;  in 
munitions,  for  her  soldiers  must  have  munitions  with  which 
to  fight;  in  transportation,  in  locomotives  and  cars,  for  her 
rolling  stock  is  almost  worn  out  in  these  three  years  of  war; 
in  a  dozen  material  ways,  as  well  as  in  the  courage  and  hope 
that  come  from  comradeship  and  faith  and  confidence  that 
we  all  need.  I  hope  that  all  of  you  will  stand  by  our  Gov- 
ernment in  rendering  the  fullest  measure  of  help  to  Russia, 
which  is  fighting  our  battles  with  her  own;  poor  Russia, 
desperately  weary  of  the  war,  still  gathering  herself  for 
another  campaign,  while  we  are  entering  the  war  fresh  and 
unharmed.  I  hope  you  will  all  stand  by  the  Government  of 
our  country  in  rendering  the  full  measure  of  help  to  Russia, 
and  I  hope  that  you  will  aid  the  people  of  the  United  States 
to  support  the  Government  in  rendering  that  help  by  a  uni- 
versal sentiment  of  desire  for  comradeship  and  support  on 
the  part  of  the  people  of  the  United  States.  Material,  sub- 
stantial, practical  aid  is  needed  that  Russia  shall  go  on  with 
the  war.  That  we  must  give  if  we  are  true  to  our  assurances, 
and  if  we  are  true  to  our  principles. 

I  want  to  say  a  word  —  not  too  many  words  —  about  the 
situation  in  America.  I  feel  that  there  are  still  some  Ameri- 
cans who  do  not  quite  understand  why  we  are  fighting,  why 
we  are  about  to  fight.  If  they  did,  they  would  stop  these  pro- 
German  traitors  who  are  selling  out  our  country,  who  are 
endeavoring  to  make  us  unsuccessful  in  the  war  that  we  have 
undertaken,  who  are  endeavoring  to  make  our  actions  ineffi- 
cient, who  are  endeavoring  by  opposition  and  obstruction, 
in  Congress  and  out  of  Congress,  to  make  what  America  does 
in  preparation  for  the  war  so  ineffective,  partial,  and  incom- 


52  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

petent,  that  when  our  young  men  go  to  the  firing  line  in 
France  and  Flanders  they  will  meet  defeat.  If  our  people  all 
understood  why  it  is  that  we  are  going  into  this  war,  they 
would  rise  up  and  crush  these  traitors  down  to  earth.  There 
are  men  walking  about  the  streets  of  this  city  tonight  that 
ought  to  be  taken  out  at  sunrise  tomorrow  and  shot  for  trea- 
son. They  are  doing  their  work  under  false  pretense;  they 
are  professing  to  be  for  the  country  and  they  are  lying  every 
day  and  in  every  word.  They  are  covering  themselves  with 
the  cloak  of  pretended  Americanism;  and  if  we  are  compe- 
tent and  fit  for  our  liberty,  we  will  find  them  out  and  get  at 
them.  And  every  one  of  us  can  help,  not  by  talking  to  each 
other  about  what  we  hear,  but  by  carrying  to  the  authorities 
charged  with  the  pursuit  and  detection  of  traitors,  all  the 
information  we  can  gather. 

And  understand,  and  I  hope  they  will  understand,  it  is 
only  a  question  of  time.  We  are  only  a  democracy,  we  have 
not  the  swift  decision  and  competent  action  of  a  military 
autocracy,  but  we  cannot  be  fooled  or  played  with  too  long. 
There  are  some  newspapers  published  in  this  city  every  day, 
the  editors  of  which  deserve  conviction  and  execution  for 
treason.  And  sooner  or  later  they  will  get  it.  The  American 
people  are  not  going  to  see  their  young  men  led  to  death 
through  the  machinations  of  these  ill-concealed  friends  of  the 
enemy  of  our  country. 

Now,  why  is  it  that  we  are  going  into  this  fight  ?  Specifi- 
cally, the  sinking  of  our  ships  and  the  murder  of  our  citizens 
by  the  U-boats,  in  violation  of  the  well-established  and 
agreed-upon  rules  of  the  law  of  nations.  That  does  not  tell 
the  whole  story,  because  that  action  in  violation  of  the  law  of 
nations,  in  violation  of  the  rules  of  humanity  and  in  violation 
of  the  well-established  principles  of  our  civilization,  is  but  an 
illustration  of  what  it  is  that  Germany  proposes  to  the  world. 
It  is  but  an  illustration  of  what  we  are  all  to  expect  if  Ger- 


GERMANY,  RUSSIA,  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES      53 

many  acquires  domination  over  the  world,  as  Rome  domi- 
nated the  world;  and  it  is  to  prevent  that  domination  which 
will  be  the  death  of  liberty,  the  downfall  of  democracy,  the 
restoration  of  tyranny,  that  America  is  entering  this  war; 
and  it  is  to  preserve  not  merely  the  freedom,  the  democracy 
of  the  world  at  large,  but  the  freedom  and  the  democracy  of 
our  own  country,  that  we  are  entering  the  war. 

It  is  an  old  saying  that  to  govern  is  to  foresee,  and  the 
democracy  that  governs  must  be  able  to  foresee.  You  can- 
not expect  all  the  people  who  are  working  upon  the  farms 
and  in  the  factories  and  in  the  stores  and  shops  to  be  so 
familiar  with  international  affairs  as  to  look  forward  and 
forecast  the  future,  but  you  can  expect  that  in  a  competent, 
self-governing  democracy  there  shall  be  many  men  who  are 
sufficiently  familiar  with  the  affairs  of  the  world  to  form  a 
just  forecast  of  what  their  country  is  to  expect  in  the  near 
future,  judging  from  what  they  see  hi  the  present;  and  that 
forecast  leaves  no  doubt  whatever  that  if  Germany  were  to 
win  in  this  war  the  liberty  of  America  would  be  worth  not  a 
song.  If  Germany  were  to  win  in  this  war,  it  would  mean  the 
dismemberment  of  this  Union  and  the  subjection  of  this 
people! 

Do  you  remember  what  Bismarck  said  about  the  Monroe 
Doctrine  ?  He  said  it  was  a  piece  of  colossal  impudence.  Do 
you  remember  what  William,  the  present  William,  the  great 
war  lord,  said  at  the  time  of  the  Venezuelan  affair  ?  He 
said  if  he  had  had  a  larger  navy  he  would  have  taken  the 
United  States  by  the  scruff  of  the  neck.  Do  you  remember 
what  Admiral  Dietrich  undertook  to  do  in  Manila  Bay,  when 
Dewey  sent  word  to  him,  "  If  you  want  to  have  a  fight,  you 
can  have  it  now  "  ?  Did  you  observe  what  Germany  was 
doing  in  Haiti  just  before  this  war  was  opened  ?  She  was 
seeking  a  foothold  in  Haiti  —  for  a  naval  base  in  the  Carib- 
bean, commanding  the  Panama  Canal,  and  robbing  us  for- 


54  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

ever  of  our  security,  and  making  it  necessary  that  we  should 
keep  forever  great  navies  and  great  armies  for  OUT  protection 
against  sudden  and  unexpected  attack. 

What  has  Germany  been  doing  all  over  the  world  but 
meddling  with  the  affairs  of  every  country,  to  extend  her  own 
dominion  ?  Africa,  Asia,  the  islands  of  the  South  Seas,  she 
has  seized  upon.  About  all  the  world  is  taken  up  except  the 
vast  and  ill-populated  and  undefended  stretches  of  incal- 
culable wealth  in  the  New  World  —  South  America  and 
North  America. 

Now,  add  to  the  gloss  that  we  have  in  specific  facts  upon 
the  character  and  purpose  of  Germany,  the  avowed  prin- 
ciples of  Germany:  no  faith  or  treaties  are  binding  on  her; 
no  law  is  to  bind  her  when  it  is  against  the  interests  of 
Germany.  National  interest  is  above  all  obligations  of  law 
and  faith.  That  is  her  supreme  law. 

To  seize  what  she  desires  is  right  in  her  eyes.  To  lie  when 
it  will  benefit  his  country,  is  honorable  to  a  German  gentle- 
man. *Not  one  of  the  principles  that  have  illustrated  the 
civilization  of  the  nineteenth  and  twentieth  centuries  is  held 
in  the  slightest  regard  by  the  military  autocracy  that  rules 
Germany.  They  have  harked  back  to  those  dark  and  dread- 
ful days  of  the  past  when  might  was  the  only  right,  and  all 
man  need  do  was  to  seize  what  his  strong  right  hand  could 
hold;  to  those  days  when  there  was  no  liberty  or  justice  for 
plain,  common  people;  to  those  days  when  the  principles  of 
Rome  governed  the  actions  of  men.  Then  turn  your  eyes  to 
America,  with  Germany  holding  those  principles,  moved  by 
such  impulses,  repudiating  all  laws  and  treaties  upon  which 
we  rely  for  protection,  with  a  lust  for  territory  and  a  pride  in 
conquest,  and  an  overwhelming  belief  in  the  right  of  their 
race  to  dominate  the  world;  and  think  what  America  would 
have  had  to  meet  if  this  war  had  closed  with  the  success  of 
Germany,  with  the  fertile  fields  and  the  rich  mines  of  South 


GERMANY,  RUSSIA,  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES      55 

and  North  America  lying  undefended.  As  clear  as  the  day- 
light on  this  morning  is  the  lesson;  as  certain  as  the  sunrise 
tomorrow  was  the  inevitable  fate  of  the  United  States  if 
Germany  were  to  win  this  war.  We  have  entered  the  war  to 
fight  for  liberty,  for  democracy,  not  in  the  abstract,  but  in 
order  that  our  children  may  inherit  a  free  land,  and  be  sub- 
ject to  no  master,  be  subservient  to  no  arrogant  military 
caste.  That  is  why  we  are  fighting,  and  that  calls  for  every 
ounce  of  weight  we  have  in  America;  it  calls  for  the  stern- 
ness and  severity  of  men  who  understand  that  we  are  fighting 
for  life;  it  calls  for  a  treatment  of  these  recreant  scoundrels 
who  are  trying  to  help  the  enemy  of  our  liberty,  treatment  as 
severe  and  rigid  as  our  strength  makes  it  possible  to  extend. 

We  are  going  to  fight,  that  our  old  men  and  children  shall 
not  be  murdered,  and  our  women  outraged,  that  our  oppor- 
tunities in  life  shall  not  be  cut  off,  and  that  our  people  who 
have  lived  with  no  political  superior  for  more  than  a  hundred 
years  may  not  be  reduced  to  a  condition  of  vassals.  And  it 
is  no  easy  thing;  we  have  got  to  suffer  and  to  endure.  It  is 
no  business  in  which  we  should  be  concerned  about  trifles. 
We  may  not  like  this  or  that  or  the  other  thing  that  a  public 
officer  does.  The  main  thing,  the  great  thing  is  to  do  nothing 
that  will  retard  or  divert  or  hinder  the  exercise  of  the  full 
power  of  the  American  people  in  this  mighty  conflict,  and  to 
do  everything  that  we  can  to  add  to  that  power,  and  press 
forward  to  the  accomplishment  of  the  great  and  necessary 
object  of  winning  the  war. 

Now,  thoughtful  Russians  feel  that.  The  war  is  at  their 
doors.  Their  young  men  have  died,  and  mourning 'is  through- 
out the  land,  and  they  are  wearied  of  the  war;  but  they  feel 
that  their  liberty  will  be  lost  if  they  do  not  gather  again  for 
the  conflict;  and  we  soon  or  late  must  come  to  feel  it,  and  the 
sooner  we  feel  it,  the  sooner  it  will  be  over  and  the  victory 
won. 


A  FEDERATED  UNION  OF  THE 
AMERICAN  BAR 

ADDRESS  AT  THE  SPECIAL  CONFERENCE  OF  DELEGATES  FROM 

THE  AMERICAN  BAR"  ASSOCIATION  AND  DELEGATES 

FROM  STATE  AND  LOCAL  BAR  ASSOCIATIONS 

SARATOGA  SPRINGS,  SEPTEMBER  3,  1917 

A  special  conference  was  held  in  connection  with  the  annual  meeting  of  the 
American  Bar  Association  at  Saratoga  Springs,  the  second  of  its  kind,  the  first 
having  been  held  at  Chicago,  following  an  invitation  extended  by  the  American  Bar 
Association,  over  the  signature  of  its  then  president,  Elihu  Root.  Mr.  Julius  Henry 
Cohen  of  New  York  named  Mr.  Root  as  presiding  officer  of  the  Saratoga  conference, 
saying:  "  It  is  the  great  privilege  of  the  Committee  on  Arrangements  to  present  for 
your  consideration  as  chairman  of  this  conference  the  name  of  Elihu  Root." 
Mr.  Root  was  declared  the  unanimous  choice  of  the  conference  as  its  presiding 
officer,  and  spoke  as  follows: 

I  THANK  you  for  your  cordiality  in  selecting  me  to  act 
as  chairman  of  this  meeting. 

The  subject  is  one  in  which  I  have  taken  a  great  interest, 
because  after  acting  as  president,  first  of  the  local  bar  associa- 
tion of  my  own  city,  then  as  president  of  the  bar  association 
of  my  own  state,  and  then  as  president  of  the  American 
Bar  Association,  I  have  come  to  feel  that  there  is  a  great  loss 
of  power,  a  great  waste  of  opportunity,  through  the  failure  of 
these  different  associations  to  function  with  proper  reference 
to  each  other.  It  seemed  to  me  that  the  local  associations 
lacked  something  of  the  strength  and  effectiveness  that 
would  come  from  a  consciousness  of  a  broader  scope  of 
activity  in  the  profession  than  is  possible  to  a  local  associa- 
tion shut  up  in  itself,  and  that  the  national  association  was 
wholly  unable  to  accomplish  results  in  many  most  important 
directions  because  it  lacked  the  personal  touch  with  the  bars 
of  the  different  localities.  It  seemed  to  me  that  the  diffi- 
culties that  existed  were  not  to  be  met  by  any  scheme  of 

57 


58  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

combination,  of  reorganization  —  of  a  federal  system,  of  an 
absorbing  one  of  the  other  —  that  any  such  plan,  and  there 
were  many  of  them,  would  result  in  the  destruction  of  either 
the  local  associations  or  the  national  association;  but  that 
there  could  be  a  very  great  increase  of  power  by  establishing 
association  and  by  cooperation,  by  establishing  close  and 
systematic  relations  between  local  and  state  associations  and 
the  national  association,  leaving  each  class  of  association  free 
and  sovereign  in  its  own  domain. 

That  view  —  I  speak  of  my  understanding  of  it,  not 
because  I  originated  it,  for  it  was  the  view  which  was  enter- 
tained by  many  gentlemen  of  the  bar  and  was  expressed  in 
conversation  here  and  there  in  a  desultory  way  —  led  to  the 
call  for  a  conference  last  year,  which,  after  a  quite  full  discus- 
sion, realized  that  it  was  only  on  the  threshold  of  the  subject, 
and  so  called  for  this  further  conference.  What  we  were 
talking  about  last  year  was  the  betterment  of  our  methods, 
our  institutions;  the  improvement  of  conditions  at  the  bar; 
the  improvement  of  the  morale,  the  prosperity  and  the  effec- 
tiveness of  the  bar  and  the  improvement  of  the  administra- 
tion of  justice.  Some  things  were  called  for  that  the  national 
association  could  do;  some  things  were  called  for  that  the 
state  and  local  associations  could  do,  for  the  improvement  of 
ordinary  conditions  —  setting  up  a  movement  for  progress 
towards  better  conditions  all  the  time.  We  all  realized  that 
the  bar  had  rather  lagged  behind  in  availing  itself  of  the 
power  of  organization  and  association  which  almost  all  kinds 
of  business  had  adopted,  and  in  almost  all  the  other  relations 
of  life,  multiplying  the  power  of  man. 

Today  there  has  been  a  change  in  conditions  which  pre- 
sents an  infinitely  more  important  and  pressing  necessity  for 
the  highest  effectiveness  of  the  bar,  not  merely  for  the  better- 
ment of  its  conditions,  not  merely  for  the  improvement  of 
the  administration  of  justice  in  the  ordinary  course  of  affairs, 


FEDERATED  UNION  OF  THE  BAR  59 

but  for  the  preservation  of  the  institutions  upon  which  our 
law  rests;  for  the  preservation  of  the  system  of  justice  that 
we  represent,  and  in  behalf  of  which  we  speak  from  day  to 
day,  from  the  time  we  receive  our  first  diploma  until  the 
time  that  we  lay  down  all  our  human  activities. 

There  was  much  discussion  about  little  things  at  the 
beginning  of  this  great  war;  questions  of  dates  and  of 
negotiations  between  foreign  offices,  whether  this  one  was 
really  in  favor  of  this  or  not,  and  whether  that  one  ought  to 
have  done  something  or  ought  not  to  have  done  something 
which  would  have  a  bearing  upon  the  preservation  of  peace 
and  the  prevention  of  war.  Gradually,  as  time  has  gone  on 
and  facts  have  developed  more  clearly,  it  has  become  per- 
fectly plain  that  this  war  is  not  solely  a  conflict  between 
specific  ambitions,  but  that  it  is  a  conflict  between  two 
opposed  and  inevitably  opposed  systems  of  government,  of 
policy,  of  politics,  of  human  society.  It  has  become  quite 
evident  that  this  war  was  brought  on  with  a  purpose  to 
establish  throughout  the  civilized  world  a  military  autocracy. 
It  has  become  perfectly  evident  that  more  than  a  generation 
of  careful,  purposeful,  and  intense  preparation  had  been  made 
for  this  very  thing  and  that  the  democracies  of  the  world  — 
loosely  compact,  rejoicing  in  peace  and  in  prosperity,  in 
political  freedom,  in  individual  liberty  —  were  unprepared, 
were  in  great  measure  and  in  differing  degrees  unprepared, 
to  meet  the  attack  upon  them.  Slowly  it  became  apparent 
to  the  democracies  of  the  world  that  the  principle  upon 
which  they  live  must  be  defended  against  the  attack  of  the 
adverse  principle,  the  domination  of  which  means  the  spread 
of  autocracy  and  the  everlasting  destruction  of  the  system  of 
individual  liberty  of  which  we  are  the  high  priests  of  the  bar. 
So  long  as  there  exists  a  great  and  powerful  military  autoc- 
racy, which  has  as  its  purpose  to  secure  domination  by 
military  force,  so  long  republics,  democracies,  countries 


60  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

which  preserve  individual  freedom  and  individual  rights  — 
countries  which  subordinate  government  to  freedom  —  must 
be  at  the  mercy  of  that  autocracy;  they  must  do  its  will  and 
submit  to  its  control,  or  they  must  enter  upon  a  systematic 
preparation  of  military  force  for  defense,  to  an  extent  which 
in  itself  must  destroy  democracy,  must  destroy  individual 
liberty.  Let  me  make  that  plain  by  an  illustration.  We  are 
today  hi  war;  we  have  entered  upon  the  present  great  war 
in  order  that  we  may  before  it  is  too  late  defend  our  future 
liberty  and  security  against  the  domination  of  an  overpower- 
ing and  arrogant  military  autocracy;  that  we  may  defend 
our  liberty  and  our  future  security,  while  there  is  yet  a 
chance  of  defending  it,  because  there  are  still  other  powers 
with  which  we  can  join  to  defend  it. 

What  is  the  effect  of  our  entering  upon  the  war  ?  The 
effect  is  that  we  have  surrendered,  and  are  obliged  to  sur- 
render, a  great  measure  of  that  liberty  which  you  and  I  have 
been  asserting  in  court  during  all  of  our  lives.  Power  over 
property,  power  over  person,  has  to  be  vested  in  a  military 
commander  in  order  to  carry  on  war  successfully.  You  can- 
not have  free  democracy  and  successful  war  at  the  same 
moment.  The  inevitable  conclusion  is  that  if  you  have  to 
live  with  a  great  powerful  military  autocracy  as  your  neigh- 
bor you  cannot  maintain  your  democracy.  And  another 
inference  is  that  if  you  are  to  maintain  your  democracy  you 
must  kill  autocracy. 

As  well  go  to  sleep  with  a  burglar  sitting  in  your  front  hall 
as  to  talk  about  the  peace  and  the  security  of  a  democracy 
with  Germany  still  competent  to  pursue  its  career  of  domina- 
tion! Think  of  it  for  a  moment.  If  we  had  not  gone  into 
this  war  and  Germany  had  succeeded  and  had  come  out  with 
her  power  unbroken  and  had  applied  to  us,  as  she  had  very 
well  the  will  to  do,  the  same  principles  that  she  applied  to 
Serbia  and  to  Belgium,  and  we  had  undertaken  to  prepare  to 


FEDERATED  UNION  OF  THE  BAR  61 

defend  our  rights  as  we  are  now  preparing  to  defend  them, 
and  the  armies  and  the  navies  of  the  Allies  in  Europe  had  not 
held  down  the  German  fleets  and  the  German  army,  what 
would  Germany  have  been  doing  to  us  now  ?  What  would 
have  happened  to  us  during  these  five  months  of  confusion 
and  doubt  and  the  learning  of  military  organization  in  the 
infant  class  ?  What  would  Germany  have  done  to  us  during 
the  past  five  months  if  she  had  not  been  held  down  in 
Europe  ?  Why,  her  heel  would  have  been  upon  our  neck. 
So  our  entrance  into  this  war  has  been  a  grasping  at  the  one 
chance  for  the  preservation  of  our  system  of  government, 
our  independent  bar,  our  independent  courts,  our  rights  of 
American  manhood  to  assert  the  rights  of  the  individual  in 
all  places  and  against  all  power.  Our  entrance  into  this  war 
has  been  a  grasping  at  the  one  chance  there  was  to  continue 
the  free  republic  that  our  fathers  have  handed  down  to  us, 
and  to  preserve  everything  that  makes  the  life  of  a  lawyer 
dignified  and  worth  the  living. 

And  our  vigorous  and  successful  prosecution  of  this  war  is 
the  sole  way  in  which  we  can  make  that  chance  a  successful 
one.  There  is  no  room  now  for  argument  as  to  whether  we 
should  or  whether  we  should  not;  we  are  in  the  war,  and  the 
stake  for  which  we  fight  is  liberty  in  independence  and 
the  justice  of  our  American  country,  our  American  life,  our 
American  ideals.  It  is  we  of  the  bar  who  stand  at  the  door 
through  which  oppression  will  enter.  It  is  not  so  easy  for  the 
farmer  to  see  that  there  will  be  a  difference  in  his  crops  or  in 
the  sale  of  them;  for  the  manufacturer  to  see  that  any  one 
will  stop  wearing  clothing  or  shoes  or  using  machinery,  but 
it  is  easy  for  us  to  see  that  with  the  domination  of  that 
military  system  which  subordinates  law,  which  makes  the 
bar  only  a  part  of  the  administrative  system  of  government 
and  leaves  the  bench  no  independence  —  it  is  easy  for  the 
lawyer  to  see  that  everything  he  has  contended  for  of  indi- 


62  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

vidual  liberty  and  the  supremacy  of  law  over  executive 
power  will  be  attacked  and  destroyed  if  we  do  not  succeed  in 
this  war.  Now,  it  is  necessary  that  the  bar  of  the  United 
States  shall  be  alive  to  this  fact,  that  it  may  constitute  a 
great  informing  and  enlightening  power  throughout  our 
land  so  that  the  humblest  workingman  in  the  field  or  in  the 
factory  may  be  awakened  to  the  necessity  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  our  liberty,  and  our  system  of  law  and  justice.  The 
bar  should  exert  every  influence  and  every  power  that  it 
possibly  can  over  its  clients,  over  its  friends  and  associates 
throughout  every  community  where  its  members  live, 
giving  the  cry  of  alarm,  and  urging  the  support  of  the  whole 
community  for  the  men  who  represent  the  law  and  the 
enforcement  of  it,  for  liberty  and  for  property. 

This  change  to  warlike  conditions  does  not  supersede  what 
we  were  talking  about  a  year  ago.  It  only  illustrates  the 
importance  of  it;  it  adds  a  thousand  fold  to  the  importance 
of  it;  it  calls  for  an  increase  of  power  through  association  and 
organization  that  we  were  seeking  for  last  year  and  makes  it  a 
hundred  times  as  pressing  in  its  demand,  a  hundred  times  as 
important  in  its  result. 

And  so  let  us  go  on  with  our  effort  to  weld  the  bars  of  all  the 
states  and  of  all  the  towns,  not  into  the  American  Bar  Asso- 
ciation, not  into  any  state  association,  but  into  a  federal 
union,  not  on  paper,  but  by  growth  and  association  and 
cooperated  action  —  a  federated  union  of  all  the  bars  in  all 
the  states  and  all  the  towns;  a  federated  union  of  all  the 
bars  which,  in  time,  will  produce  by  the  natural  processes  of 
growth  the  American  bar,  the  greatest  power  for  liberty  and 
justice,  for  right  and  manhood,  that  this  world  has  ever 
produced. 


THE  AMERICAN  BAR  AND  THE  WAR 

RESOLUTIONS  OF  THE  AMERICAN  BAR  ASSOCIATION 
SEPTEMBER  4,  1917 

At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  American  Bar  Association,  held  at  Saratoga  Springs, 
New  York,  September  4-7,  1917,  the  first  business  transacted  was  the  unanimous 
adoption  by  a  rising  vote  of  the  following  resolutions,  presented  by  Mr.  Root  in 
behalf  of  the  Executive  Committee.  In  presenting  the  resolutions,  Mr.  Root  said: 

I  ASK  leave  to  submit  to  the  Association  a  special  and 
preliminary  report  from  the  Executive  Committee.  Your 
committee  feel  that  the  essential  character  of  the  great  con- 
flict upon  which  our  country  is  now  entering  challenges  the 
special  attention  and  judgment  of  the  bar  above  all  other 
classes  or  groups  of  the  community.  It  is  plain  to  the 
thoughtful  observer  that  at  the  bottom  the  world  conflict  is 
between  two  opposing  principles  of  organization  of  civil 
society.  It  is  between  the  principle  of  government  by 
divine  right  with  the  subordination  of  individual  liberty  to 
the  forces  that  maintain  autocracy,  and  the  principle  of 
individual  liberty,  with  the  organization  of  government  for 
the  preservation  of  that  liberty  upon  the  basis  of  popular 
authority.  The  conflict  is  the  result  of  forces  mightier  than 
the  will  of  any  nation  which  in  the  providence  of  God  have 
brought  this  people  to  the  point  where  once  again  they  are 
required  to  fight,  at  the  sacrifice  of  comfort  and  ease  and 
property  and  life,  for  the  institutions  that  they  cherish,  for 
the  liberty  they  are  determined  to  maintain,  and  for  the 
justice  which  they  hope  to  hand  down  to  their  children. 
And  your  committee  feel  that  at  the  outset  of  these  proceed- 
ings the  representatives  of  the  American  bar  should  speak 
regarding  their  attitude  toward  this  conflict  with  no  uncer- 
tain sound  —  should  speak  as  men  who  have  all  their  lives 

03 


64  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

been  standing  for  justice  and  maintaining  law  and  liberty. 
The  committee  have,  therefore,  instructed  me  to  present  the 
following  resolutions  and  recommend  their  adoption  by  this 
Association: 

The  American  Bar  Association  declares  its  absolute 
and  unqualified  loyalty  to  the  Government  of  the 
United  States. 

We  are  convinced  that  the  future  freedom  and  security 
of  our  country  depend  upon  the  defeat  of  German 
military  power  in  the  present  war. 

We  urge  the  most  vigorous  possible  prosecution  of  the 
war  with  all  the  strength  of  men  and  materials  and 
money  which  the  country  can  supply. 

We  stand  for  the  speedy  dispatch  of  the  American 
army,  however  raised,  to  the  battle-front  in  Europe, 
where  the  armed  enemies  of  our  country  can  be  found 
and  fought  and  where  our  own  territory  can  be  best 
defended. 

We  condemn  all  attempts  in  Congress  and  out  of  it  to 
hinder  and  embarrass  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  in  carrying  on  the  war  with  vigor  and  effec- 
tiveness. 

Under  whatever  cover  of  pacificism  or  technicality 
such  attempts  are  made,  we  deem  them  to  be  in  spirit 
pro-German  and  in  effect  giving  aid  and  comfort  to  the 
enemy. 

We  declare  the  foregoing  to  be  overwhelmingly  the 
sentiment  of  the  American  bar. 


THE  WAR  AND  DISCUSSION 

ADDRESS  AT  A  WAR  MASS  MEETING  IN  THE  COLISEUM 
CHICAGO,  SEPTEMBER  14.  1917 

fTlHE  declaration  of  war  between  the  United  States  and 

A  Germany  completely  changed  the  relations  of  all  the 

inhabitants  of  this  country  to  the  subject  of  peace  and  war. 

Before  the  declaration  everybody  had  a  right  to  discuss  in 
private  and  in  public  the  question  whether  the  United  States 
should  carry  on  war  against  Germany.  Everybody  had  a 
right  to  argue  that  there  was  no  sufficient  cause  for  war,  that 
the  consequences  of  war  would  be  worse  than  the  conse- 
quences of  continued  peace,  that  it  would  be  wiser  to  submit 
to  the  aggressions  of  Germany  against  American  rights,  that 
it  would  be  better  to  have  Germany  succeed  than  to  have  the 
Allies  succeed  in  the  great  conflict.  Everybody  holding  these 
views  had  a  right  by  expressing  them  to  seek  to  influence 
public  opinion  and  to  affect  the  action  of  the  President  and 
the  Congress,  to  whom  the  people  of  the  country  by  their 
Constitution  have  entrusted  the  power  to  determine  whether 
the  United  States  shall  or  shall  not  make  war.  But  the  ques- 
tion of  peace  or  war  has  now  been  decided  by  the  Presi- 
dent and  Congress,  the  sole  authorities  which  had  the  right 
to  decide,  the  lawful  authorities  who  rested  under  the  duty  to 
decide.  The  question  no  longer  remains  open.  It  has  been 
determined,  and  the  United  States  is  at  war  with  Germany. 

The  power  to  make  such  a  decision  is  the  most  essential, 
vital,  and  momentous  of  all  the  powers  of  government.  No 
nation  can  maintain  its  independence  or  protect  its  citizens 
against  oppression  or  continue  to  be  free,  which  does  not  vest 
the  power  to  make  that  decision  in  some  designated  author- 
ity, or  which  does  not  recognize  the  special  and  imperative 

65 


66  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

duties  of  citizenship  in  time  of  war  following  upon  such  a 
decision  lawfully  made.  One  of  the  cardinal  objects  of  the 
union  which  formed  this  nation  was  to  create  a  lawful 
authority  whose  decision  and  action  upon  this  momentous 
question  should  bind  all  the  states  and  all  the  people  of 
every  state. 

The  Constitution  under  which  we  have  lived  for  a  hundred 
and  thirty  years  declares:  "We,  the  people  of  the  United 
States  in  order  to  ...  provide  for  the  common  defense,  pro- 
mote the  general  welfare,  and  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to 
ourselves  and  our  posterity,  do  ordain  and  establish  this  Con- 
stitution." The  Constitution  so  ordained,  vests  in  Congress 
the  power  to  declare  war,  to  raise  and  support  armies,  to  pro- 
vide and  maintain  a  navy,  and  it  vests  in  the  President  the 
power  to  command  the  army  and  navy.  The  power  in  this 
instance  was  exercised  not  suddenly  or  rashly,  but  advisedly, 
after  a  long  delay  and  discussion,  and  patience  under  pro- 
vocation, after  repeated  diplomatic  warnings  to  Germany 
known  to  the  whole  country,  after  clear  notice  by  breach  of 
diplomatic  relations  with  Germany  that  the  question  was 
imminent,  after  long  opportunity  for  reflection  and  discussion 
following  that  notice,  and  after  a  formal  and  deliberate  pre- 
sentation by  the  President  to  Congress  of  the  reasons  for 
action,  in  an  address  which  compelled  the  attention  not  of 
Congress  alone,  but  of  all  Americans  and  of  all  the  world,  and 
which  must  forever  stand  as  one  of  the  great  state  papers  of 
modern  times.  The  decision  was  made  by  overwhelming 
majorities  of  both  houses  of  Congress.  When  such  a  decision 
has  been  made,  the  duties  —  and  therefore  the  rights  —  of 
all  the  people  of  the  country  immediately  change.  It 
becomes  their  duty  to  stop  discussion  upon  the  question 
decided,  and  to  act,  to  proceed  immediately  to  do  everything 
in  their  power  to  enable  the  government  of  their  country  to 
succeed  in  the  war  upon  which  the  country  has  entered. 


THE  WAR  AND  DISCUSSION  67 

It  is  a  fundamental  necessity  of  government  that  it  shall 
have  the  power  to  decide  great  questions  of  policy,  and  to  act 
upon  its  decision.  In  order  that  there  shall  be  action  follow- 
ing a  decision  once  made,  the  decision  must  be  accepted.  Dis- 
cussion upon  the  question  must  be  deemed  closed.  A  nation 
which  declares  war  and  goes  on  discussing  whether  it  ought 
to  have  declared  war  or  not,  is  impotent,  paralyzed,  imbecile, 
and  earns  the  contempt  of  mankind,  and  the  certainty  of 
humiliating  defeat  and  subjection  to  foreign  control.  A 
democracy  which  cannot  accept  its  own  decisions  made  in 
accordance  with  its  own  laws,  but  must  keep  on  endlessly 
discussing  the  questions  already  decided,  has  failed  in  the 
fundamental  requirements  of  self-government;  and,  if  the 
decision  is  to  make  war,  the  failure  to  exhibit  capacity  for 
self-government  by  action  will  inevitably  result  in  the  loss  of 
the  right  of  self-government.  Before  the  decision  of  a  pro- 
posal to  make  war,  men  may  range  themselves  upon  one  side 
or  the  other  of  the  question;  but,  after  the  decision  in  favor 
of  war,  the  country  has  ranged  itself,  and  the  only  issue  left 
for  the  individual  citizen  to  decide  is  whether  he  is  for  or 
against  his  country.  From  that  time  on,  arguments  against 
the  war  in  which  the  country  is  engaged  are  enemy  argu- 
ments. Their  spirit  is  the  spirit  of  rebellion  against  the 
government  and  laws  of  the  United  States.  Their  effect  is  to 
hinder  and  lessen  that  popular  support  of  the  government  in 
carrying  on  the  war  which  is  necessary  to  success.  Their 
manifest  purpose  is  to  prevent  action  by  continuing  discus- 
sion. They  encourage  the  enemy.  They  tend  to  introduce 
delay  and  irresolution  into  our  own  councils.  The  men  who 
are  today  speaking  and  writing  and  printing  arguments 
against  the  war,  and  against  everything  which  is  being  done 
to  carry  on  the  war,  are  rendering  more  effective  service  to 
Germany  than  they  ever  could  render  in  the  field  with  arms 
in  their  hands.  The  purpose  and  effect  of  what  they  are 


68  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

doing  is  so  plain  that  it  is  impossible  to  resist  the  conclusion 
that  the  greater  part  of  them  are  at  heart  traitors  to  the 
United  States,  and  are  wilfully  seeking  to  bring  about  the 
triumph  of  Germany  and  the  humiliation  and  defeat  of  their 
own  country. 

The  same  principles  apply  to  the  decision  of  numerous 
questions  which  arise  in  carrying  on  the  war.  Somebody 
must  decide  such  questions  before  there  can  be  action,  and, 
when  they  are  decided,  the  action  can  be  only  in  accordance 
with  the  decision.  You  may  be  opposed  to  raising  an  army 
in  one  way,  and  I  may  be  opposed  to  raising  it  in  another 
way;  and  so  long  as  the  question  is  undecided,  we  are  en- 
titled to  try  to  get  our  own  views  about  it  adopted;  but  we 
do  not  have  the  decision.  The  whole  of  the  American  people 
have  elected  a  President  and  Congress  to  listen  to  your  views 
and  to  mine,  and  then  to  decide  the  question.  When  they 
have  decided,  and  a  law  has  been  passed  which  provides  for 
raising  part  of  the  army  by  voluntary  enlistment  and  part  of 
the  army  by  conscription,  it  is  plain  that  the  only  way  in 
which  we  can  raise  an  army  and  go  on  with  the  war  is  by 
accepting  that  decision,  and  following  that  law;  and  any 
attempt  to  discourage  volunteering  or  to  oppose  conscription 
is  an  attempt  to  hinder  and  embarrass  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  in  the  conduct  of  the  war,  and  to  help 
Germany  by  preventing  our  Government  from  raising  armies 
to  fight  against  her. 

Somebody  has  to  decide  where  armies  are  to  fight,  whether 
our  territory  is  to  be  defended  by  waiting  here  until  we  are 
attacked,  or  by  going  out  and  attacking  the  enemy  before 
they  get  here.  The  power  to  make  that  decision  and  the 
duty  to  make  it  rest,  under  the  Constitution  of  this  country, 
with  the  President  as  commander-m-chief .  WTien  the  Presi- 
dent has  decided  that  the  best  way  to  beat  Germany  is  to 
send  our  troops  to  France  and  Belgium,  that  is  the  way  the 


THE  WAR  AND  DISCUSSION  69 

war  must  be  carried  on,  if  at  all.  I  think  the  decision  was 
wise.  Others  may  think  it  unwise.  But  when  the  decision 
has  been  made,  what  we  think  is  immaterial.  The  Com- 
mander-in-Chief ,  with  all  the  advice  and  all  the  wisdom  he 
can  command,  has  decided  when  and  where  the  American 
army  is  to  move.  The  army  must  obey,  and  all  loyal  citizens 
of  the  country  will  do  their  utmost  to  make  that  movement  a 
success.  Anybody  who  seeks  by  argument  or  otherwise  to 
stop  the  execution  of  the  order  sending  troops  to  France  and 
Belgium,  is  simply  trying  to  prevent  the  American  Govern- 
ment from  carrying  on  the  war  successfully.  He  is  aiding  the 
enemies  of  his  country;  and,  if  he  understands  what  he  is 
really  doing,  he  is  a  traitor  at  heart. 

It  is  beyond  doubt  that  many  of  the  professed  pacifists, 
the  opponents  of  the  war  after  the  war  has  been  entered  upon, 
the  men  who  are  trying  to  stir  up  resistance  to  the  draft,  the 
men  who  are  inciting  strikes  in  the  particular  branches  of 
production  which  are  necessary  for  the  supply  of  arms  and 
munitions  of  war,  are  intentionally  seeking  to  aid  Germany 
and  to  defeat  the  United  States.  As  time  goes  on,  and  the 
character  of  these  acts  becomes  more  and  more  clearly  mani- 
fest, all  who  continue  to  associate  with  them  must  come 
under  the  same  condemnation  as  traitors  to  their  country. 

There  are  doubtless  some  who  do  not  understand  what  this 
struggle  really  is.  Some  who  were  born  here  resent  inter- 
ference with  their  comfort  and  prosperity,  and  the  demands 
for  sacrifice  which  seem  to  them  unnecessary,  and  they  fail  to 
see  that  the  time  has  come  when,  if  Americans  are  to  keep  the 
independence  and  liberty  which  their  fathers  won  by  suffer- 
ing and  sacrifice,  they  in  their  turn  must  fight  again  for  the 
preservation  of  that  independence  and  that  liberty.  There 
are  some  born  abroad  who  have  come  to  this  land  for  a 
greater  freedom  and  broader  opportunities,  and  have  sought 
and  received  the  privilege  of  American  citizenship,  who  are 


70  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

swayed  by  dislike  for  some  ally  or  by  the  sympathies  of  Ger- 
man kinship,  and  fail  to  see  that  the  time  has  come  for  them 
to  make  good  the  obligations  of  their  sworn  oaths  of  naturali- 
zation. This  is  the  oath  that  the  applicant  for  citizenship 
makes: 

That  he  will  support  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  that  he 
absolutely  and  entirely  renounces  and  abjures  all  allegiance  and  fidelity  to 
any  foreign  prince,  potentate,  state,  or  sovereignty;  .  .  .  that  he  will  sup- 
port and  defend  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States  against  all 
enemies,  foreign  and  domestic,  and  bear  true  faith  and  allegiance  to  the 
same.1 

All  these  naturalized  citizens  who  are  taking  part  in  this 
obstruction  to  our  Government  in  the  conduct  of  the  war  are 
false  to  their  oaths,  are  forfeiting  their  rights  of  citizenship, 
are  repudiating  their  honorable  obligations,  are  requiting  by 
evil  the  good  that  has  been  done  them  in  the  generous  and 
unstinted  hospitality  with  which  the  people  of  the  United 
States  have  welcomed  them  to  the  liberty  and  the  oppor- 
tunities of  this  free  land.  We  must  believe  that  in  many 
cases  this  is  done  because  of  a  failure  to  understand  what  this 
war  really  is. 

This  is  a  war  of  defense.  It  is  perfectly  described  in  the 
words  of  the  Constitution  which  established  this  nation: 
"  To  provide  for  the  common  defense,"  and  **  To  secure  the 
blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  posterity."  The 
national  defense  demands  not  merely  force,  but  intelligence. 
It  requires  foresight,  consideration  of  the  policies  and  pur- 
poses of  other  nations,  understanding  of  the  inevitable  or 
probable  consequences  of  the  acts  of  other  nations,  judgment 
as  to  the  time  when  successful  defense  may  be  made,  and 
when  it  will  be  too  late,  and  prompt  action  before  it  is  too 
late.  By  entering  this  war  in  April,  the  United  States  availed 
itself  of  the  very  last  opportunity  to  defend  itself  against 

1  34  United  States  Statutes  at  Large,  Part  I,  pp.  597-598. 


THE  WAR  AND  DISCUSSION  71 

subjection  to  German  power  before  it  was  too  late  to  defend 
itself  successfully. 

For  many  years  we  have  pursued  our  peaceful  course  of 
internal  development,  protected  in  a  variety  of  ways.  We 
have  been  protected  by  the  law  of  nations  to  which  all  civi- 
lized governments  have  professed  their  allegiance.  So  long 
as  we  committed  no  injustice  ourselves  we  could  not  be 
attacked  without  a  violation  of  that  law.  We  were  protected 
by  a  series  of  treaties  under  which  all  the  principal  nations  of 
the  earth  agreed  to  respect  our  rights  and  to  maintain  friend- 
ship with  us.  We  were  protected  by  an  extensive  system  of 
arbitration  created  by,  or  consequent  upon,  the  peace  confer- 
ences at  The  Hague,  and  under  which  all  controversies  aris- 
ing under  the  law  and  under  treaties  were  to  be  settled 
peaceably,  by  arbitration  and  not  by  force.  We  were  pro- 
tected by  the  broad  expanse  of  ocean  separating  us  from  all 
great  military  powers,  and  by  the  bold  assertion  of  the 
Monroe  Doctrine,  that  if  any  of  those  powers  undertook  to 
overpass  the  ocean  and  establish  itself  upon  these  western 
continents,  that  action  would  be  regarded  as  dangerous  to  the 
peace  and  safety  of  the  United  States,  and  would  call  upon 
us  to  act  in  our  defense.  We  were  protected  by  the  fact  that 
the  policy  and  the  fleet  of  Great  Britain  were  well  known  to 
support  the  Monroe  Doctrine.  We  were  protected  by  the 
delicate  balance  of  power  in  Europe,  which  made  it  seem  not 
worth  while  for  any  power  to  engage  in  a  conflict  here  at  the 
risk  of  suffering  from  its  rivals  there. 

All  these  protections  were  swept  away  by  the  war  which 
began  in  Europe  in  1914.  The  war  was  begun  by  the  con- 
certed action  of  Germany  and  Austria,  —  the  invasion  of 
Servia  by  Austria  on  the  east,  and  the  invasion  of  Luxem- 
burg and  Belgium  by  Germany  on  the  west.  Both  inva- 
sions were  in  violation  of  the  law  of  nations,  and  in  violation 
of  the  faith  of  treaties.  Everybody  knew  that  Russia  was 


7£  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

bound  in  good  faith  to  come  to  the  relief  of  Servia,  that 
France  was  bound  by  treaty  to  come  to  the  aid  of  Russia, 
that  England  was  bound  by  treaty  to  come  to  the  aid  of 
Belgium,  so  that  the  invasion  of  those  two  small  states  was 
the  beginning  of  a  general  European  war.  These  acts  which 
have  drenched  the  world  with  blood  were  defended  and  justi- 
fied in  the  bold  avowal  of  the  German  Government  that  the 
interests  of  the  German  State  were  superior  to  the  obligations 
of  law  and  the  faith  of  treaties;  that  no  law  or  treaty  was 
binding  upon  Germany  which  it  was  for  the  interest  of  Ger- 
many to  violate.  All  pretense  of  obedience  to  the  law  of 
nations  and  of  respect  for  solemn  promises  was  thrown  off; 
and  in  lieu  of  that  system  of  lawful  and  moral  restraint  upon 
power  which  Christian  civilization  has  been  building  up  for  a 
century,  was  reinstated  the  cynical  philosophy  of  Frederick 
the  Great,  the  greatest  of  the  Hohenzollerns,  who  declared: 

If  possible,  the  powers  of  Europe  should  be  made  envious  against  one 
another,  in  order  to  give  occasion  for  a  coup  when  the  opportunity  arises.1 

If  a  ruler  is  obliged  to  sacrifice  his  own  person  for  the  welfare  of  his  sub- 
jects, he  is~all  the  more  obliged  to  sacrifice  treaty  engagements,  the  con- 
tinuance of  which  would  be  harmful  to  his  country.  Is  it  better  that  a 
nation  should  perish,  or  that  a  sovereign  should  break  his  treaty  ?  * 

Statesmanship  can  be  reduced  to  three  principles:  —  First,  to  maintain 
your  power,  and,  according  to  circumstances,  to  extend  it.  Second,  to 
form  an  alliance  only  for  your  own  advantage.  Third,  to  command  fear 
and  respect,  even  in  the  most  disastrous  times.  * 

1  Oewares  de  Frederic  le  Grand/1££V /  Expose  du  Gouvernemenl  Prussien/Des 
Principes  sur  lesquels  U  roule,  avec  quelques  reflexions  poliiiques.  Berlin:  1848. 
vol.  9,  p.  188. 

1  Histoire  de  man  temps,  tome  I,  Avant-propos,  pp.  xxvi-xxvii.  Oeuvres  de 
Frederic  le  Grand,  roi  de  Prusse  (Berlin,  1846-8),  tome  II. 

1  Les  Matinees  Royales,  ou  Fart  de  regner:  Opuscule  inedit  de  Frederic  II,  dit 
le  Grand,  roi  de  Prusse:  London,  Williams  and  Morgate,  1863,  p.  29.  This  little 
book,  consisting  of  five  of  the  seven  Matinees  Royales,  was  edited  by  the  late  Lord 
Acton  from  a  copy  of  the  original  work  at  Sans  Souci  in  1806,  by  Baron  de 
M£neval,  private  secretary  to  Napoleon.  As  regards  the  authenticity  of  the 
Matinees  Royales,  see  an  article  entitled  "The  Confessions  of  Frederick  the  Great" 
and  a  review  of  "Buff on:  sa  famille,  ses  collaborateurs  et  ses  familiers":  Memoiret 
far  M.  Humbert- Kazile,  ton  secretaire;  mis  en  ordre,  annoie*  et  augment**  de  docu- 


THE  WAR  AND  DISCUSSION  73 

Do  not  be  ashamed  of  making  interested  alliances  from  which  you  your- 
self can  derive  the  whole  advantage.  Do  not  make  the  foolish  mistake  of 
not  breaking  them  when  you  believe  your  interests  require  it.  ... 

Above  all,  uphold  the  following  maxim:  —  To  despoil  your  neighbors  is 
to  deprive  them  of  the  means  of  injuring  you.1 

When  he  is  about  to  conclude  a  treaty  with  some  foreign  power,  if  a 
sovereign  remembers  he  is  a  Christian,  he  is  lost.* 

From  1914  until  the  present,  in  a  war  waged  with  a  revolt- 
ing barbarity  unequalled  since  the  conquests  of  Genghis 
Khan,  Germany  has  violated  every  rule  agreed  upon  by  civi- 
lized nations  in  modern  times  to  mitigate  the  barbarities  of 
war  or  to  protect  the  rights  of  non-combatants  and  neutrals. 
She  had  no  grievance  against  Belgium  except  that  Belgium 
stood  upon  her  admitted  rights  and  refused  to  break  the 
faith  of  her  treaties  by  consenting  that  the  neutrality  of  her 
territory  should  be  violated  to  give  Germany  an  avenue  for 
the  attack  upon  France.  The  German  Kaiser  has  taken  pos- 
session of  the  territory  of  Belgium  and  subjected  her  people  to 
the  hard  yoke  of  a  brutal  soldiery.  He  has  extorted  vast  sums 
from  her  peaceful  cities.  He  has  burned  her  towns,  and  bat- 
tered down  her  noble  churches.  He  has  stripped  the  Belgian 
factories  of  their  machinery,  and  deprived  them  of  the  raw 
materials  of  manufacture.  He  has  carried  away  her  work- 
men by  tens  of  thousands  into  slavery,  and  her  women  into 
worse  than  slavery.  He  has  slain  peaceful  non-combatants 
by  the  hundred,  undeterred  by  the  helplessness  of  age,  of 
infancy,  or  of  womanhood.  He  has  done  the  same  in  North- 
ern France,  in  Poland,  in  Servia,  in  Rumania.  In  all  of  these 
countries  women  have  been  outraged  by  the  thousand,  by 
tens  of  thousands,  and  who  ever  heard  of  a  German  soldier 
being  punished  for  rape,  or  robbery,  or  murder  ?  These  re- 
volting outrages  upon  humanity  and  law  are  not  the  casual 

ments  inedits  par  M.  Henri  Nadault  de  Buff  on  (Paris:  Renouard),  in  the  Home 
and  Foreign  Review  for  1868,  pp.  152-171,  704-711. 
1  Ibid.,  pp.  18-19.  •  Ibid.,  p.  7. 


74  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

incidents  of  war;  they  are  the  results  of  a  settled  policy  of 
frightfulness  answering  to  the  maxim  of  the  Great  Frederick 
to  **  command  respect  through  fear." 

Why  were  these  things  done  by  Germany  ?  The  answer 
rests  upon  the  accumulated  evidence  of  German  acts  and 
German  words  so  conclusive  that  no  pretense  can  cover  it, 
no  sophistry  can  disguise  it.  The  answer  is,  that  this  war  was 
begun  and  these  crimes  against  humanity  were  done  because 
Germany  was  pursuing  the  hereditary  policy  of  the  Hohen- 
zollerns,  and  following  the  instincts  of  the  arrogant  military 
caste  which  rules  Prussia,  to  grasp  the  over-lordship  of  the 
civilized  world  and  establish  an  empire  in  which  she  should 
play  the  role  of  ancient  Rome.  They  were  done  because 
Prussian  militarism  still  pursues  the  policy  of  power  through 
conquest,  of  aggrandizement  through  force  and  fear,  which  in 
little  more  than  two  centuries  has  brought  the  puny  Mark  of 
Brandenburg  with  its  million  and  a  half  of  people,  to  the  con- 
trol of  a  vast  empire,  —  the  greatest  armed  force  of  the 
modern  world.  It  now  appears  beyond  all  possibility  of 
doubt,  that  this  war  was  made  by  Germany  in  pursuit  of  a 
long  and  settled  purpose.  For  many  years  she  had  been  pre- 
paring to  do  exactly  what  she  has  done,  with  a  thoroughness, 
a  perfection  of  plans,  and  a  vastness  of  provision  in  men, 
munitions  and  supplies,  never  before  equalled  or  approached 
in  human  history.  She  brought  on  the  war  when  she  chose, 
because  she  chose,  in  the  belief  that  she  could  conquer  the 
earth  nation  by  nation. 

All  nations  are  egotistical,  all  peoples  think  most  highly  of 
then*  own  qualities,  and  regard  other  peoples  as  inferior;  but 
the  egotism  of  the  ruling  class  in  Prussia  is  beyond  all 
example,  and  it  is  active  and  aggressive.  They  believe  that 
Germany  is  entitled  to  rule  the  world  by  virtue  of  her  superi- 
ority in  all  those  qualities  which  they  include  under  the  term 
Kultur,  and  by  reason  of  her  power  to  compel  submission  by 


THE  WAR  AND  DISCUSSION  75 

the  sword.  That  belief  does  not  evaporate  in  theory.  It  is 
translated  into  action,  and  this  war  is  the  action  which  re- 
sults. This  belief  in  national  superiority  and  the  right  to 
assert  it  everywhere  is  a  tradition  from  the  Great  Frederick. 
It  has  been  instilled  into  the  minds  of  the  German  people 
through  all  the  universities  and  schools.  It  has  been  preached 
from  her  pulpits  and  taught  by  her  philosophers  and  his- 
torians. It  has  been  maintained  by  her  government,  and  it 
will  never  cease  to  furnish  the  motive  for  the  people  of 
Prussia,  so  long  as  German  power  enables  the  military  autoc- 
racy of  Prussia  to  act  upon  it  with  success. 

Plainly,  if  the  power  of  the  German  government  is  to  con- 
tinue, America  can  no  longer  look  for  protection  to  the  law  of 
nations,  or  the  faith  of  treaties,  or  the  instincts  of  humanity, 
or  the  restraints  of  modern  civilization. 

Plainly,  also,  if  we  had  stayed  out  of  the  war,  and  Ger- 
many had  won,  there  would  no  longer  have  been  a  balance  of 
power  in  Europe,  or  a  British  fleet  to  support  the  Monroe 
Doctrine  and  to  protect  America. 

Does  any  one  indulge  in  the  foolish  assumption  that  Ger- 
many would  not  then  have  extended  her  lust  for  power  by 
conquest,  to  the  American  Continent  ?  Let  him  consider 
what  it  is  for  which  the  nations  of  Europe  have  been  chiefly 
contending  for  centuries  past.  It  has  been  for  colonies.  It 
has  been  to  bring  the  unoccupied  or  weakly-held  spaces  of 
the  earth  under  their  flags  and  their  political  control,  in  order 
to  increase  their  trade  and  their  power.  Spam,  Holland, 
Portugal,  England,  France, -have  all  had  their  turn,  and  have 
covered  the  earth  with  their  possessions.  For  thirty  years 
Germany,  the  last  comer,  has  been  pressing  forward  with 
feverish  activity  the  acquisition  of  stations  for  her  power  on 
every  coast  and  every  sea,  restive  and  resentful  because  she 
has  been  obliged  to  take  what  others  have  left.  Europe,  Asia, 
and  Africa  have  been  taken  up.  The  Americas  alone  remain. 


76  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

Here  in  the  vast  and  undefended  spaces  of  the  New  World, 
fraught  with  potential  wealth  incalculable,  Germany  could 
"  find  her  place  in  the  sun,"  to  use  her  Emperor's  phrase; 
Germany  could  find  her  "  liberty  of  national  evolution,"  to 
use  his  phrase  again.  Every  traditional  policy,  every  in- 
stinct of  predatory  Prussia  would  urge  her  into  this  new 
field  of  aggrandizement.  What  would  prevent  ?  The  Mon- 
roe Doctrine  ?  Yes.  But  what  is  the  Monroe  Doctrine  against 
a  nation  which  respects  only  force,  unless  it  can  be  main- 
tained by  force  ?  We  already  know  how  the  German  Govern- 
ment feels  about  the  Monroe  Doctrine.  Bismarck  declared 
it  to  be  a  piece  of  colossal  impudence;  and  when  President 
Roosevelt  interfered  to  assert  the  doctrine  for  the  protection 
of  Venezuela,  the  present  Kaiser  declared  that  if  he  had 
then  had  a  larger  navy  he  would  have  taken  America  by 
the  scruff  of  the  neck.  If  we  had  stayed  out  of  the  war,  and 
Germany  had  won,  we  should  have  had  to  defend  the  Mon- 
roe Doctrine  by  force,  or  abandon  it;  and  if  we  abandoned  it, 
there  would  have  been  a  German  naval  base  in  the  Caribbean 
commanding  the  Panama  Canal,  depriving  us  of  that  strate- 
gic line  which  unites  our  eastern  and  western  coasts,  and 
depriving  us  of  the  protection  which  the  expanse  of  ocean 
once  gave.  And  an  America  unable  or  unwilling  to  protect 
herself  against  the  establishment  of  a  German  naval  base 
in  the  Caribbean  would  lie  at  the  mercy  of  Germany,  sub- 
ject to  Germany's  orders.  America's  independence  would  be 
gone  unless  she  was  ready  to  fight  for  it,  and  her  security 
would  thenceforth  be,  not  the  security  of  freedom,  but  only 
a  security  purchased  by  submission. 

But  if  America  had  stayed  out  of  the  war  and  Germany 
had  won,  could  we  have  defended  the  Monroe  Doctrine  ? 
Could  we  have  maintained  our  independence  ?  For  an 
answer  to  this  question,  consider  what  we  have  been  doing 
since  the  second  of  April  last,  when  war  was  declared.  Con- 


THE  WAR  AND  DISCUSSION  77 

gress  has  been  in  continuous  session,  passing  with  unpre- 
cedented rapidity  laws  containing  grants  of  power  and  of 
money  unexampled  in  our  history.  The  executive  estab- 
lishment has  been  straining  every  nerve  to  prepare  for  war. 
The  ablest  and  strongest  leaders  of  industrial  activity  have 
been  called  from  all  parts  of  the  country  to  aid  the  Govern- 
ment. The  people  of  the  country  have  generously  responded 
with  noble  loyalty  and  enthusiasm  to  the  call  for  the  surren- 
der of  money  and  of  customary  rights,  and  the  supply  of 
men,  to  the  service  of  the  country.  Nearly  hah*  a  year  has 
passed,  and  still  we  are  not  ready  to  fight.  I  am  not  blaming 
the  Government.  It  was  inevitable.  Preparation  for  modern 
war  cannot  be  made  briefly  or  speedily.  It  requires  time, 
long  periods  of  time;  and  the  more  peaceful  and  unprepared 
for  war  a  democracy  is,  the  longer  is  the  time  required. 

It  would  have  required  just  as  long  for  America  to  prepare 
for  war  if  we  had  stayed  out  of  this  war,  and  Germany  had 
won,  and  we  had  undertaken  then  to  defend  the  Monroe  Doc- 
trine, or  to  defend  our  coasts  when  we  had  lost  the  protection 
of  the  Monroe  Doctrine.  Month  after  month  would  have 
passed  with  no  adequate  army  ready  to  fight,  just  as  these 
recent  months  have  passed.  But  what  would  Germany  have 
been  doing  to  us  in  the  meantime  ?  How  long  would  it  have 
been  before  our  attempts  at  preparation  would  have  been 
stopped  by  German  arms  ?  A  country  that  is  forced  to  defend 
itself  against  the  aggression  of  a  military  autocracy,  always 
prepared  for  war,  must  itself  be  prepared  for  war  beforehand, 
or  it  never  will  have  the  opportunity  to  prepare. 

The  history,  the  character,  the  avowed  principles  of  action, 
the  manifest  and  undisguised  purposes  of  the  German  autoc- 
racy, made  it  clear  and  certain  that  if  America  stayed  out  of 
the  great  war,  and  Germany  won,  America  would  forthwith 
be  required  to  defend  herself,  and  would  be  unable  to  defend 
herself  against  the  same  lust  for  conquest,  the  same  will  to 


78  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

dominate  the  world,  which  has  made  Europe  a  bloody 
shambles. 

When  Germany  did  actually  apply  her  principles  of  action 
to  us;  when  by  the  invasion  of  Belgium  she  had  violated  the 
solemn  covenant  she  had  made  with  us  to  observe  the  law  of 
neutrality  established  for  the  protection  of  peaceful  states; 
when  she  had  arrogantly  demanded  that  American  com- 
merce should  surrender  its  lawful  right  of  passage  upon  the 
high  seas  under  penalty  of  destruction;  when  she  had  sunk 
American  ships  and  sent  to  their  death  hundreds  of  American 
citizens,  peaceful  men,  women,  and  children,  when  the  Gulf- 
light  and  the  Falaba  and  the  Persia  and  the  Arabic  and  the 
Sussex  and  the  Lusitania  had  been  torpedoed  without  warn- 
ing in  contempt  of  law  and  of  humanity;  when  the  German 
Embassy  at  Washington  had  been  found  to  be  the  headquar- 
ters of  a  vast  conspiracy  of  corruption  within  our  country, 
inciting  sedition  and  concealing  infernal  machines  in  the 
cargoes  of  our  ships,  and  blowing  up  our  factories  with  the 
workmen  laboring  in  them;  and  when  the  Government  of 
Germany  had  been  discovered  attempting  to  incite  Mexico 
and  Japan  to  form  a  league  with  her  to  attack  us,  and  to  bring 
about  a  dismemberment  of  our  territory;  then  the  question 
presented  to  the  American  people  was  not  what  shall  be  done 
regarding  each  of  these  specific  aggressions  taken  by  itself, 
but  what  shall  be  done  by  America  to  defend  her  commerce, 
her  territory,  her  citizens,  her  independence,  her  liberty,  her 
life  as  a  nation,  against  the  continuance  of  assaults  already 
begun  by  that  mighty  and  conscienceless  power  which  has 
swept  aside  every  restraint  and  every  principle  of  Christian 
civilization,  and  is  seeking  to  force  upon  a  subjugated 
world  the  dark  and  cruel  rule  of  a  barbarous  past.  The  ques- 
tion was,  how  shall  peaceful  and  unprepared  and  liberty- 
loving  America  save  herself  from  subjection  to  the  military 
power  of  Germany  ? 


THE  WAR  AND  DISCUSSION  79 

There  was  but  one  possible  answer.  There  was  but  one 
chance  for  rescue,  and  that  was  to  act  at  once,  while  the  other 
democracies  of  the  world  were  still  maintaining  their  liberty 
against  the  oppressor;  to  prepare  at  once  while  the  armies 
and  the  navies  of  England  and  France  and  Italy  and  Russia 
and  Rumania  were  holding  down  Germany  so  that  she  could 
not  attack  us  while  our  preparation  was  but  half  accom- 
plished, to  strike  while  there  were  allies  loving  freedom  like 
ourselves  to  strike  with  us,  to  do  our  share  to  prevent  the 
German  Kaiser  from  acquiring  that  domination  over  the 
world  which  would  have  left  us  without  friends  to  aid  us, 
without  preparation,  and  without  the  possibility  of  successful 
defense. 

The  instinct  of  the  American  democracy  which  led  it  to 
act  when  it  did,  arose  from  a  long-delayed  and  reluctant  con- 
sciousness still  vague  and  half -expressed,  that  this  is  no  ordi- 
nary war  which  the  world  is  waging.  It  is  no  contest  for 
petty  policies  and  profits.  It  is  a  mighty  and  all-embracing 
struggle  between  two  conflicting  principles  of  human  right 
and  human  duty.  It  is  a  conflict  between  the  divine  right  of 
kings  to  govern  mankind  through  armies  and  nobles,  and  the 
right  of  the  peoples  of  the  earth  who  toil  and  endure  and 
aspire,  to  govern  themselves  by  law  under  justice,  and  in  the 
freedom  of  individual  manhood.  It  is  the  climax  of  the 
supreme  struggle  between  autocracy  and  democracy.  No 
nation  can  stand  aside  and  be  free  from  its  effects.  The  two 
systems  cannot  endure  together  in  the  same  world.  If  autoc- 
racy triumphs,  military  power,  lustful  of  dominion,  supreme 
in  strength,  intolerant  of  human  rights,  holding  itself  above 
the  reach  of  law,  superior  to  morals,  to  faith,  to  compassion, 
will  crush  out  the  free  democracies  of  the  world.  If  autoc- 
racy is  defeated  and  nations  are  compelled  to  recognize  the 
rule  of  law  and  of  morals,  then  and  then  only  will  democracy 
be  safe. 


80  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

To  this  great  conflict  for  human  rights  and  human  liberty, 
America  has  committed  herself.  There  can  be  no  backward 
step.  There  must  be  either  humiliating  and  degrading  sub- 
mission, or  terrible  defeat,  or  glorious  victory.  It  was  no 
human  will  that  brought  us  to  this  pass.  It  was  not  the 
President.  It  was  not  Congress.  It  was  not  the  press.  It 
was  not  any  political  party.  It  was  not  any  section  or  part  of 
our  people.  It  was  the  fact  that  in  the  providence  of  God  the 
mighty  forces  that  determine  the  destinies  of  mankind  be- 
yond the  control  of  human  purpose,  have  brought  to  us  the 
time,  the  occasion,  the  necessity,  that  this  peaceful  people  so 
long  enjoying  the  blessings  of  liberty  and  justice  for  which 
their  fathers  fought  and  sacrificed,  shall  again  gird  themselves 
for  conflict,  and  with  all  the  forces  of  manhood  nurtured  and 
strengthened  by  liberty,  offer  again  the  sacrifice  of  posses- 
sions and  of  life  itself,  that  this  nation  may  still  be  free,  that 
the  mission  of  American  democracy  shall  not  have  failed, 
that  the  world  shall  be  free. 


JAPAN  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES 

ADDRESS  AT  A  LUNCHEON  IN  HONOR  OF  THE  IMPERIAL 
JAPANESE   MISSION.  NEW  YORK.  OCTOBER  1,  1917 

At  a  luncheon  given  at  the  Bankers'  Club  in  New  York  City,  October  1, 1917,  by 
Messrs.  Cutting,  Baker,  and  Morgan,  of  that  city,  the  toastmaster  said  that  the 
distinguished  guests  were  present  to  greet  Viscount  Ishii  and  his  associates,  and  to 
express  their  feeling  of  amity  toward  the  great  nation  they  represented.  They  were 
present  to  emphasize  their  desire  to  do  everything  practical  and  possible  to  cement 
firmly  and  forever  the  friendly  relations  between  the  two  great  countries.  He  con- 
tinued: "The  first  speaker  on  the  program,  his  history,  achievements,  his  position, 
are  well  known.  I  have  the  great  honor  of  presenting  America's  foremost  citizen, 
the  Honorable  Elihu  Root." 

Mr.  Root  spoke  as  follows: 

I  AM  under  great  obligation  to  the  hosts  of  this  luncheon 
for  giving  me  the  opportunity  to  join  in  testifying  to 
respect  and  admiration  and  warmth  of  friendship  for  the 
gentlemen  who  have  come  so  far  across  the  Pacific  to  extend 
to  us  assurances  of  the  friendship  of  the  great  and  wonderful 
nation  which  they  represent. 

I  find  myself,  without  any  aid  or  suggestion  on  my  part, 
put  down  upon  the  program  to  speak  to  the  formal  toast, 
**  International  Friendship."  But  neither  the  time,  nor  the 
character  of  such  a  meeting  as  this,  would  justify  a  long  dis- 
cussion of  that  rather  broad  subject.  We  are  in  midst  of  a 
transition  which  is  deeply  affecting  international  friendship. 
We  are  passing  out  of  one  condition  of  international  relation 
into  another  and  widely-differing  condition.  We  recall  the 
maxim  of  Frederick  the  Great,  that  a  ruler  should  never  be 
ashamed  to  make  an  alliance  which  was  entirely  for  his  own 
advantage,  and  should  never  hesitate  to  break  it  when  it 
ceased  to  be  for  his  advantage.  And  the  further  maxim,  that 

81 


82  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

it  was  the  duty  of  a  ruler,  when  he  found  that  a  treaty  was  no 
longer  beneficial  to  his  people,  to  break  it;  for,  he  said,  "  Is 
it  not  better  that  a  ruler  should  break  his  word  than  that  his 
people  should  suffer  ?  "  A  fine  altruistic  view  of  a  ruler's 
duty,  which  regarded  a  treaty  as  being  merely  a  matter 
between  himself  and  another  ruler,  so  that  only  his  conscience 
was  involved  in  the  breaking  of  it  and  not  at  all  the  con- 
science of  his  people;  so  that  if  he  would  do  that  violence  to 
his  own  nature  which  was  involved  in  breaking  a  treaty  for 
the  benefit  of  his  people,  it  was  a  noble  self-sacrifice. 

Now  that  illustrates  the  old  condition  of  international 
relation.  The  relation  was  between  rulers,  between  sover- 
eigns, not  between  the  peoples;  and  the  sovereigns  were 
pursuing  their  own  settled  policies  —  policies  continued  from 
generation  to  generation,  always  involving  the  possibility  of 
aggrandizement,  of  increasing  power,  of  increasing  dominion; 
and  the  people  were  not  interested  in  the  slightest.  All  the 
great  wars  that  have  convulsed  the  world  since  the  Peace  of 
Westphalia  have  been,  down  to  very  recent  days,  wars  in 
which  some  ruler  was  attempting  to  increase  his  power  and 
his  dominion,  and  other  rulers  were  attempting  to  prevent 
him  from  increasing  it.  Now,  however,  the  business  of 
foreign  affairs  is  passing  into  the  hands  of  democracies;  and 
in  the  hands  of  democracies  the  old  evil  of  dynastic  policies  is 
disappearing;  for  democracies  are  incapable  of  maintaining 
or  following  the  kind  of  policy  which  has  involved  the  world 
in  war  so  many,  many  times  during  the  past  centuries.  A 
democracy  cannot  in  its  very  nature  pursue  such  a  policy. 
The  mere  necessity  of  discussion,  public  discussion,  in  order 
to  secure  the  appropriations,  the  expenditure  of  money,  and 
the  action  of  public  representatives,  the  mere  necessity  for 
discussion,  is  destructive  of  such  policies. 

But  we  are  running  into  other  difficulties.  Democracies 
have  their  dangers,  and  they  have  their  dangers  in  foreign 


JAPAN  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES  83 

affairs;  and  those  dangers  arise  from  the  fact  that  the  great 
mass  of  people  have  not  the  time  or  the  opportunity,  or  in 
most  cases,  the  capacity  to  study  and  understand  the  intri- 
cate and  complicated  relations  which  exist  necessarily 
between  nations.  And  being  so  situated  that  they  cannot 
study  the  relations,  cannot  become  familiar  with  the  vast 
mass  of  facts  which  they  involve,  cannot  become  familiar 
with  the  characters  and  purposes  of  other  nations,  they  are 
peculiarly  open  to  misrepresentation  and  misunderstanding. 
The  great  danger  to  international  relations  with  the  democ- 
racies is  misunderstanding,  —  a  misunderstanding  of  one's 
own  rights;  a  misunderstanding  of  one's  own  duties,  and  of 
the  rights  and  duties  of  other  peoples. 

Now  we  are  peculiarly  open  to  that  danger  in  this  country. 
We  have  been  so  isolated  from  other  nations  that  we  have, 
in  general,  but  very  slender  information  regarding  them,  and 
we  are  peculiarly  liable  to  be  misled.  It  is  only  a  very  few 
years  since  the  people  of  the  United  States  really  regarded 
the  department  of  foreign  relations  as  a  perfectly  useless 
bureau,  and  ambassadors  and  ministers  as  of  no  practical 
value  at  all.  You  would  get  a  very  large  degree  of  assent  ten 
years  ago  to  the  proposition  that  we  might  better  abolish  the 
whole  childish  folly,  with  all  its  fuss  and  feathers.  Now  we 
are  passing  out  of  that  condition,  and  we  are  finding  anti- 
dotes for  that  evil.  This  great  war  is  teaching  the  people  of 
every  country,  even  the  dullest  and  the  most  self-centered, 
that  no  nation  can  live  unto  itself  alone.  It  is  teaching  the 
interdependence  of  mankind;  it  is  teaching  the  unity  of 
civilization;  it  is  teaching  the  singleness  of  purpose  that  goes 
with  duty  and  love  of  humanity,  and  the  idealism  that  per- 
vades all  noble  natures,  whatever  the  language  be  and  what- 
ever the  country  be.  In  fact,  more  and  more  this  war  grows 
to  be 'a  conflict  —  not  between  nations,  not  between  this, 
that,  and  the  other  people,  but  between  certain  principles  of 


84  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

modern  civilization  and  the  principles  of  a  dark  and  dreadful 
past. 

There  never  has  been  in  this  country,  so  far  as  my  obser- 
vation and  reading  go,  any  more  dangerous  and  persistent 
misrepresentation  regarding  the  relations,  the  purposes,  the 
character  of  another  country  with  which  we  have  relations, 
than  in  the  case  of  the  relations  between  the  United  States 
and  Japan.  I  have  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  the  misrep- 
resentations and  the  attempts  to  create  bad  feeling  among 
the  people  who  have  it  all  in  their  hands  now,  —  the  attempts 
to  create  bad  feeling  between  the  United  States  and  Japan, 
have  been  very  largely  the  result  of  a  fixed  and  settled  pur- 
pose; and  it  is  growing  day  by  day  more  plain  that  this  pur- 
pose has  formed  a  part  of  the  policy  of  that  great  ruling  caste 
of  Germany  which  is  attempting  to  subjugate  the  world 
today.  It  goes  back  again  to  a  maxim  of  the  great  Frederick, 
who  advised  his  successors  that  it  was  wise  to  create  jealousies 
among  the  nations  of  Europe,  in  order  that  they  might  not 
be  an  aid  to  each  other  when  the  opportunity  came  for  a 
coup.  That  policy  has  been  pursued  everywhere  in  the 
civilized  world.  While  Germany  has  been  incapable  of 
estimating  the  great  moral  forces  that  move  mankind;  while 
she  has  been  incapable  of  forming  a  judgment  as  to  what  were 
the  real  temper  and  spirit  of  England,  of  the  British  colonies, 
of  the  American  republic,  of  the  French  republic,  of  the 
Italian  constitutional  monarchy,  she  has  had  a  chemical 
affinity  for  everything  that  is  base  in  every  country.  She 
has  appealed  to  all  the  baser  feelings  and  conditions;  she  has 
appealed  to  cupidity;  she  has  appealed  to  prejudice,  and  to 
all  the  lower  passions  of  men  everywhere  in  the  world. 
Wherever  she  could  array  evil  against  good;  wherever  she 
could  destroy  content  and  neighborliness  and  respect  for 
law,  and  the  desire  for  the  better  things  of  life,  there  she  has 
been  working  to  subjugate.  All  the  baser  passions  received 


JAPAN  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES  85 

impetus,  fuel,  encouragement  from  her,  and  a  part  of  her 
effort  has  been,  I  have  no  doubt  whatever,  to  create  estrange- 
ment, if  possible,  between  the  United  States  and  Japan. 

Now  I  wish  in  the  first  place  to  express  my  own  most 
grateful  appreciation  of  the  fine  and  noble  way  in  which  the 
Viscount  Ishii  and  his  Mission,  inspired  and  commissioned 
by  the  Government  of  Japan,  have  come  to  America  to  dispel 
all  this  cloud  of  misunderstanding  and  suspicion  and  doubt. 
The  frank  and  sincere  utterances  of  the  Viscount  are  like 
rays  of  sun  dispelling  the  cloud.  There  is  very  great  virtue  hi 
speaking  face  to  face.  There  is  great  virtue  in  letting  in  the 
light.  There  is  a  good  quality  in  human  nature  which  makes 
men  like  each  other  and  trust  each  other  the  more,  when  they 
meet  each  other  face  to  face;  and  I  think  it  certain  that  the 
visit  of  this  Mission  to  America  begins  a  new  era  of  under- 
standing and  friendship  between  these  two  great  nations  that 
look  at  each  other  across  the  Pacific,  which  will  revive 
memories  of  the  days  past,  of  those  early  years  in  which  this 
great  republic  served  its  part  in  introducing  the  new  Japan 
to  the  nations  of  the  world. 

I  wish  to  say  one  other  thing.  For  many  years  I  was  very 
familiar  with  our  own  department  of  foreign  affairs,  and  for 
some  years  I  was  specially  concerned  in  its  operation. 
During  that  time  there  were  many  difficult,  perplexing,  and 
doubtful  questions  to  be  discussed  and  settled  between  the 
United  States  and  Japan.  During  that  time  the  thoughtless 
or  malicious  section  of  the  press  was  doing  its  worst.  During 
that  time  the  demagogue,  seeking  cheap  reputation  by  stir- 
ring up  the  passions  of  the  people  to  whom  he  appealed,  was 
doing  his  worst.  There  were  many  incidents  out  of  which 
quarrels  and  conflict  might  have  arisen;  and  I  hope  you  will 
all  remember  what  I  say  of  them:  I  say  that  during  all  that 
period  there  never  was  a  moment  when  the  Government  of 
Japan  was  not  frank,  sincere,  friendly,  and  most  solicitous, 


86  UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  WAR 

not  to  enlarge  but  to  minimize  and  do  away  with  all  causes  of 
controversy.  No  one  who  has  any  familiarity  at  all  with  life 
can  be  mistaken  in  a  negotiation  as  to  whether  the  one  with 
whom  he  is  negotiating  is  trying  to  prevent  or  trying  to 
bring  about  a  quarrel.  That  is  a  fundamental  thing  that  you 
cannot  be  mistaken  about.  And  there  never  was  a  more 
consistent  and  noble  advocacy  of  peace,  of  international 
friendship,  and  of  real  good  understanding,  in  the  diplomacy 
of  this  world,  than  was  exhibited  by  the  representatives  of 
Japan,  both  here  and  in  Japan,  during  all  these  years  in  their 
relations  to  the  United  States.  I  wish  for  no  better,  no  more 
frank  and  friendly  intercourse  between  my  country  and  any 
other  country  than  the  intercourse  by  which  Japan  in  those 
years  illustrated  the  best  qualities  of  the  new  diplomacy 
between  nations,  as  distinguished  from  the  old  diplomacy  be- 
tween rulers. 

And  in  the  most  delightful  recollection  of  those  years,  and 
most  agreeable  appreciation  for  what  you  have  now  done,  I 
beg  you,  my  dear  Viscount,  when  you  return  to  your  home, 
that  you  will  say  to  the  Government  and  to  the  people  of 
Japan:  The  people  of  America,  who  now  hold  their  foreign 
affairs  in  their  hands,  wish  to  be  forever  friends  and 
brethren  of  the  people  of  Japan. 


THE  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 


THE  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

THE  thirteen  British  colonies  of  America  which  joined  in  the  declaration 
of  independence  on  July  4,  1776,  laid  down  certain  principles  which  were 
revolutionary  then  and  now,  and  which  will  engender  revolutions  until 
they  shall  triumph,  not  merely  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  men,  but  in  the 
form  of  government  and  in  the  practice  of  nations. 

The  last  people  to  confess  its  faith  in  the  right  to  alter  or  abolish  a  form 
of  government  which  had  become  destructive  of  the  ends  for  which  it  was 
formed,  and  to  institute  a  new  government  "  as  to  them  shall  seem  most 
likely  to  effect  their  safety  and  happiness  "  is  the  Russian  people;  and 
like  the  revolutionary  statesmen  of  1776,  the  revolutionary  statesmen  of 
Russia  of  1917  have  issued  an  appeal  to  the  peoples  in  accordance  with 
"  a  decent  respect  to  the  opinions  of  mankind." 

We  do  not  know  at  present  the  history  of  the  movement  which  resulted 
in  the  abdication  of  the  Romanoffs  and  the  substitution  in  their  place  of  a 
government  "  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people."  We  know 
that  the  leaders  of  thought  in  Russia  have  prayed,  have  lived,  have 
worked,  have  died  for  better  things,  and  we  who  believe  in  better  things 
know  that  they  have  not  worked  and  died  in  vain.  The  immediate  cause 
of  the  overthrow  of  the  Romanoff  dynasty  seems  to  have  been  the  issue  of 
two  ukases  suspending  the  sittings  of  the  Duma  and  the  Council  of  the 
Empire;  but  behind  these  was  the  longing  for  better  things  which  took 
advantage  of  the  condition  produced  by  the  unwisdom  of  the  Czar,  just  as 
it  would  have  taken  advantage  of  a  favorable  turn  of  affairs  at  some  future 
time. 

On  March  15, 1917,  the  Czar  abdicated  the  throne,  which  was  in  fact  no 
longer  his,  in  favor  of  his  brother,  Grand  Duke  Michael,  and  the  latter, 
either  believing  in  the  American  doctrine  of  the  consent  of  the  governed  or 
not  quite  sure  that  the  brother  could  pass  title  to  what  he  no  longer  pos- 
sessed, would  apparently  have  none  of  it  unless  the  people  would  insist  upon 
his  accepting  the  throne.  The  following  is  the  text  of  the  Czar's  abdication : 
We,  Nicholas  II,  by  the  Grace  of  God,  Emperor  of  all  the  Russias, 
Czar  of  Poland,  and  Grand  Duke  of  Finland,  etc.,  make  known  to  all 
our  faithful  subjects: 

In  the  day  of  the  great  struggle  against  a  foreign  foe,  who  has  been 
striving  for  three  years  to  enslave  our  country,  God  has  wished  to  send 
to  Russia  new  and  painful  trial.  Interior  troubles  threaten  to  have  a 
fatal  repercussion  on  the  final  outcome  of  the  war.  The  destinies  of 

89 


90  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

Russia  and  the  honor  of  our  heroic  army,  the  happiness  of  the  people, 
and  all  the  future  of  our  dear  Fatherland  require  that  the  war  be 
prosecuted  at  all  cost  to  a  victorious  end.  The  cruel  enemy  is  making 
his  last  effort,  and  the  moment  is  near  when  our  valiant  army,  in  con- 
cert with  those  of  our  glorious  Allies,  will  definitely  chastise  the  foe. 

In  these  decisive  days  in  the  life  of  Russia  we  believe  our  people 
should  have  the  closest  union  and  organization  of  all  their  forces  for 
the  realization  of  speedy  victory.  For  this  reason,  in  accord  with  the 
Duma  of  the  Empire,  we  have  considered  it  desirable  to  abdicate  the 
throne  of  Russia  and  lay  aside  our  supreme  power. 

Not  wishing  to  be  separated  from  our  loved  son,  we  leave  our 
heritage  to  our  brother,  the  Grand  Duke  Michael  Alexandrovitch, 
blessing  his  advent  to  the  throne  of  Russia.  We  hand  over  the 
Government  to  our  brother  in  full  union  with  the  representatives  of 
the  nation  who  are  seated  in  the  legislative  chambers,  taking  this  step 
with  an  inviolable  oath  in  the  name  of  our  well-beloved  country. 

We  call  on  all  faithful  sons  of  the  Fatherland  to  fulfill  their  sacred 
patriotic  duty  in  this  painful  moment  of  national  trial  and  to  aid  our 
brother  and  the  representatives  of  the  nation  in  bringing  Russia  into 
the  path  of  prosperity  and  glory.  May  God  aid  Russia. 

The  following  is  the  text  of  the  Grand  Duke  Michael's  statement: 

This  heavy  responsibility  has  come  to  me  at  the  voluntary  request 
of  my  brother,  who  has  transferred  the  imperial  throne  to  me  during  a 
period  of  warfare  which  is  accompanied  with  unprecedented  popular 
disturbances. 

Moved  by  the  thought,  which  is  in  the  minds  of  the  entire  people, 
that  the  good  of  the  country  is  paramount,  I  have  adopted  the  firm 
resolution  to  accept  the  supreme  power  only  if  this  be  the  will  of  our 
great  people,  who,  by  a  plebiscite  organized  by  their  representatives 
in  a  constituent  assembly,  shall  establish  a  form  of  government  and 
new  fundamental  laws  for  the  Russian  State. 

Consequently,  invoking  the  benediction  of  our  Lord,  I  urge  all 
citizens  of  Russia  to  submit  to  the  Provisional  Government,  estab- 
lished upon  the  initiative  of  the  Duma  and  invested  with  full  plenary 
powers,  until  such  time,  which  will  follow  with  as  little  delay  as  pos- 
sible, as  the  Constitutent  Assembly,  on  a  basis  of  universal,  direct, 
equal,  and  secret  suffrage,  shall,  by  its  decision  as  to  the  new  form  of 
government,  express  the  will  of  the  people. 

The  following,  omitting  the  names  of  the  Cabinet,  is  the  text  of  the 
appeal  of  the  Executive  Committee,  a  charter  of  liberty  and  of  a  nation's 
hope: 


MISSION  TO  RUSSIA  91 

Citizens:  The  Executive  Committee  of  the  Duma,  with  the  aid  and 
support  of  the  garrison  of  the  capital  and  its  inhabitants,  has  suc- 
ceeded in  triumphing  over  the  obnoxious  forces  of  the  old  regime  in 
such  a  manner  that  we  are  able  to  proceed  to  a  more  stable  organiza- 
tion of  the  executive  power,  with  men  whose  past  political  activity 
assures  them  the  country's  confidence. 

[The  names  of  the  members  of  the  new  Government  are  then  given 
and  the  appeal  continues:] 

The  new  Cabinet  will  base  its  policy  on  the  following  principles: 

First  —  An  immediate  general  amnesty  for  all  political  and 
religious  offenses,  including  terrorist  acts  and  military  and  agrarian 
offenses. 

Second  —  Liberty  of  speech  and  of  the  press;  freedom  for  alliances, 
unions,  and  strikes,  with  the  extension  of  these  liberties  to  military 
officials  within  the  limits  admitted  by  military  requirements. 

Third  —  Abolition  of  all  social,  religious,  and  national  restrictions. 

Fourth  —  To  proceed  forthwith  to  the  preparation  and  convocation 
of  a  constitutional  assembly,  based  on  universal  suffrage,  which  will 
establish  a  governmental  regime. 

Fifth  —  The  substitution  of  the  police  by  a  national  militia,  with 
chiefs  to  be  elected  and  responsible  to  the  Government. 

Sixth  —  Communal  elections  to  be  based  on  universal  suffrage. 

Seventh  —  The  troops  which  participated  ,in  the  revolutionary 
movement  will  not  be  disarmed,  but  will  remain  in  Petrograd. 

Eighth  —  While  maintaining  strict  military  discipline  for  troops 
on  active  service,  it  is  desirable  to  abrogate  for  soldiers  all  restrictions 
in  the  enjoyment  of  social  rights  accorded  other  citizens. 

The  Provisional  Government  desires  to  add  that  it  has  no  inten- 
tion to  profit  by  the  circumstances  of  the  war  to  delay  the  realization 
of  the  measures  of  reform  above  mentioned. 

On  March  22,  1917,  the  American  ambassador  to  Russia,  the  Honorable 
David  R.  Francis,  formally  recognized  the  Provisional  Government  on 
behalf  of  the  United  States,  in  the  following  language: 

I  have  the  honor  as  the  ambassador  and  representative  of  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  accredited  to  Russia,  to  state  in 
accordance  with  instructions,  that  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  has  recognized  the  new  Government  of  Russia,  and  I,  as 
ambassador  of  the  United  States,  will  be  pleased  to  continue  inter- 
course with  Russia  through  the  medium  of  the  new  Government. 
May  the  cordial  relations  existing  between  the  two  countries  continue 
to  obtain.    May  they  prove  mutually  satisfactory  and  beneficial. 
Paul  Milukoff,  the  Russian  Foreign  Minister,  replied  in  the  following 
words: 


92  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

Permit  me,  in  the  name  of  the  Provisional  Government,  to  answer 
the  act  of  recognition  by  the  United  States.  You  have  been  able  to 
follow  the  events  which  have  established  the  new  order  of  affairs  for 
free  Russia.  I  have  been  more  than  once  in  your  country,  and  can 
bear  witness  that  the  ideals  which  are  represented  by  the  Provisional 
Government  are  the  same  as  underlie  the  existence  of  your  own  nation. 
I  hope  that  this  great  change  which  has  come  to  Russia  will  do  much 
to  bring  us  closer  together  than  we  have  ever  been  before.  During 
the  last  few  days  I  have  received  many  congratulations  from  promi- 
nent men  in  your  country,  assuring  me  that  the  public  opinion  of  the 
United  States  is  in  sympathy  with  us.  Permit  me  to  thank  you. 
We  are  proud  to  be  first  recognized  by  a  nation  whose  ideals  we 
cherish. 

On  May  12,  1917,  the  Department  of  State  thus  announced  the  mem- 
bers of  a  Special  Diplomatic  Mission  of  the  United  States  of  America 
to  Russia: 

ELIHU  ROOT,  of  New  York,  Ambassador  Extraordinary. 

CHAKLES  R.  CRANE,  of  Illinois,  ^ 

JOHN  R.  MOTT,  of  New  York, 

CYRUS  H.  McCoRmcK,  of  Illinois,  !  Ministers 

SAMUEL  R.  BERTRON,  of  New  York,  i  Plenipotentiary. 

JAMES  DUNCAN,  of  Massachusetts, 

CHARLES  EDWARD  RUSSELL,  of  New  York,    J 

Major-General  HUGH  L.  SCOTT,         }  Ministers  representing  the 

Rear-Admiral  JAMES  H.  GLENNON,  /  Army  and  Navy. 
President  Wilson  himself  prepared  and  transmitted  to  the  Provisional 
Government  of  Russia  the  following  address: 

In  view  of  the  approaching  visit  of  the  American  Mission  to 
Russia  to  express  the  deep  friendship  of  the  American  people  for  the 
people  of  Russia,  and  to  discuss  the  best  and  most  practical  means  of 
cooperation  between  the  two  peoples  in  carrying  the  present  struggle 
for  the  freedom  of  all  peoples  to  a  successful  consummation,  it  seems 
opportune  and  appropriate  that  I  should  state  again,  in  the  light  of 
this  new  partnership,  the  objects  the  United  States  has  had  hi  mind 
in  entering  the  war.  Those  objects  have  been  very  much  beclouded 
during  the  past  few  weeks  by  mistaken  and  misleading  statements, 
and  the  issues  at  stake  are  too  momentous,  too  tremendous,  too 
significant  for  the  whole  human  race,  to  permit  any  misinterpretations 
or  misunderstandings,  however  slight,  to  remain  uncorrected  for  a 
moment. 

The  war  has  begun  to  go  against  Germany,  and  in  their  desperate 
desire  to  escape  the  inevitable  ultimate  defeat,  those  who  are  in 


MISSION  TO  RUSSIA  93 

authority  in  Germany  are  using  every  possible  instrumentality,  are 
making  use  even  of  the  influence  of  groups  and  parties  among  their 
own  subjects  to  whom  they  have  never  been  just  or  fair,  or  even 
tolerant,  to  promote  a  propaganda  on  both  sides  of  the  sea  which  will 
preserve  for  them  their  influence  at  home  and  their  power  abroad,  to 
the  undoing  of  the  very  men  they  are  using. 

The  position  of  America  in  this  war  is  so  clearly  avowed  that  no 
man  can  be  excused  for  mistaking  it.  She  seeks  no  material  profit  or 
aggrandizement  of  any  kind.  She  is  fighting  for  no  advantage  or 
selfish  object  of  her  own,  but  for  the  liberation  of  peoples  everywhere 
from  the  aggressions  of  autocratic  force. 

The  ruling  classes  in  Germany  have  begun  of  late  to  profess  a  like 
liberality  and  justice  of  purpose,  but  only  to  preserve  the  power  they 
have  set  up  hi  Germany  and  the  selfish  advantages  which  they  have 
wrongly  gained  for  themselves  and  their  private  projects  of  power  all 
the  way  from  Berlin  to  Bagdad  and  beyond.  Government  after 
Government  has  by  their  influence,  without  open  conquest  of  its  ter- 
ritory, been  linked  together  in  a  net  of  intrigue  directed  against 
nothing  less  than  the  peace  and  liberty  of  the  world.  The  meshes  of 
that  intrigue  must  be  broken,  but  cannot  be  broken  unless  wrongs 
already  done  are  undone;  and  adequate  measures  must  be  taken  to 
prevent  it  from  ever  again  being  rewoven  or  repaired. 

Of  course,  the  Imperial  German  Government  and  those  whom  it  is 
using  for  their  own  undoing  are  seeking  to  obtain  pledges  that  the  war 
will  end  in  the  restoration  of  the  status  quo  ante.  It  was  the  status  quo 
ante  out  of  which  this  iniquitous  war  issued  forth,  the  power  of  the 
Imperial  German  Government  within  the  Empire  and  its  widespread 
domination  and  influence  outside  of  that  Empire.  That  status  must 
be  altered  in  such  fashion  as  to  prevent  any  such  hideous  thing  from 
ever  happening  again. 

We  are  fighting  for  the  liberty,  the  self-government,  and  the 
undictated  development  of  all  peoples,  and  every  feature  of  the  settle- 
ment that  concludes  this  war  must  be  conceived  and  executed  for  that 
purpose.  Wrongs  must  first  be  righted,  and  then  adequate  safeguards 
must  be  created  to  prevent  then-  being  committed  again.  We  ought 
not  to  consider  remedies  merely  because  they  have  a  pleasing  and 
sonorous  sound.  Practical  questions  can  be  settled  only  by  practical 
means.  Phrases  will  not  accomplish  the  result.  Effective  readjust- 
ments will,  and  whatever  readjustments  are  necessary  must  be 
made. 

But  they  must  follow  a  principle,  and  that  principle  is  plain.  No 
people  must  be  forced  under  sovereignty  under  which  it  does  not  wish 


94  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

to  live.  No  territory  must  change  hands  except  for  the  purpose  of 
securing  those  who  inhabit  it  a  fair  chance  of  life  and  liberty.  No 
indemnities  must  be  insisted  on  except  those  that  constitute  payment 
for  manifest  wrongs  done.  No  readjustments  of  power  must  be  made 
except  such  as  will  tend  to  secure  the  future  peace  of  the  world  and  the 
future  welfare  and  happiness  of  its  peoples. 

And  then  the  free  peoples  of  the  world  must  draw  together  in  some 
common  covenant,  some  genuine  and  practical  cooperation,  that  will 
hi  effect  combine  their  force  to  secure  peace  and  justice  in  the  dealings 
of  nations  with  one  another. 

The  brotherhood  of  mankind  must  no  longer  be  a  fair  but  empty 
phrase;  it  must  be  given  a  structure  of  force  and  reality.  The  nations 
must  realize  their  common  life  and  effect  a  workable  partnership  to 
secure  that  life  against  the  aggressions  of  autocratic  and  self -pleasing 
power. 

For  these  things  we  can  afford  to  pour  out  blood  and  treasure.    For 

these  are  the  things  we  have  always  professed  to  desire;  and  unless  we 

pour  out  blood  and  treasure  now  and  succeed,  we  may  never  be  able 

to  unite  or  show  conquering  force  again  in  the  great  cause  of  human 

liberty.    The  day  has  come  to  conquer  or  submit.    If  the  forces  of 

autocracy  can  divide  us  they  will  overcome  us;  if  we  stand  together 

victory  is  certain  and  the  liberty  which  victory  will  secure.    We  can 

afford  then  to  be  generous,  but  we  cannot  afford  then  or  now  to  be 

weak  or  omit  any  single  guarantee  of  justice  and  security. 

On  June  13,  the  Mission  arrived  hi  Petrograd.    It  left  Petrograd  on  its 

return  July  9,  sailing  from  Vladivostok  July  21,  and  during  this  interval 

Mr.  Root  delivered  the  addresses  contained  in  this  section  of  the  present 

volume,  and  members  of  the  Mission  delivered  addresses  which,  together 

with  Mr.  Root's  reprinted  from  this  volume,  are  published  in  separate 

form.    The  addresses  Mr.  Root  delivered  in  the  United  States  upon  his 

return  from  the  Russian  mission  are  likewise  included  in  this  volume  and 

are  among  the  addresses  collected  and  issued  hi  the  separate  reprint. 

On  April  16,  1816,  the  great  Napoleon  is  reported  by  De  las  Casas  to 
have  said,  after  referring  to  the  perilous  situation  in  which  the  continent  of 
Europe  then  was,  that  "  in  the  present  state  of  things  before  one  hundred 
years  all  Europe  may  be  all  Cossack  or  all  republican."  Let  us  hope  that, 
whether  Cossack  or  republican,  the  new  Europe  will  accept  the  principles 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  of  the  United  States  and  make  them 
realities. 

In  selecting  a  chairman  for  the  Russian  Diplomatic  Mission,  President 
Wilson  signified  the  importance  he  attached  to  it,  by  naming  Elihu  Root, 
who  as  Secretary  of  War,  Secretary  of  State,  and  Senator  of  the  United 
States  has  an  international  as  well  as  a  national  reputation. 


MISSION  TO  RUSSIA  95 

Mr.  Root's  profound  and  sympathetic  interest  in  the  Russian  revolu- 
tion had  been  evidenced,  prior  to  his  appointment,  by  letters  addressed  to 
officers  of  two  public  meetings  held  in  New  York  City,  to  hearten,  en- 
courage, and  acclaim  the  patriots  who  organized  and  piloted  it.  These 
letters  appropriately  introduce  the  series  of  addresses  made  by  Mr.  Root 
while  in  Russia,  and  since  his  return: 

LETTER  TO  CHARLES  R.  FLINT,  MARCH  24,  1917 

I  regret  that  I  am  prevented  from  attending  the  meeting  to  be  held 
tomorrow  evening  by  friends  and  sympathizers  with  the  Russian 
people.  I  agree  with  your  purpose.  I  look  with  satisfaction  and  joy 
upon  the  establishment  of  free  self-government  in  Russia.  I  have 
confidence  in  the  permanence  of  the  new  popular  government,  as 
against  all  possible  reactions,  for  two  main  reasons. 

The  first  reason  is  the  admirable  self-control  which  the  leaders  of 
the  new  government  and  their  followers  as  well  have  exhibited.  That 
is  the  supreme  test  of  a  people's  capacity  for  self-government.  All 
men  worthy  the  name  are  brave.  All  men  worthy  the  name  are 
patriotic;  but  only  those  who  can  keep  their  heads  cool,  restrain  their 
passions,  and  love  justice  even  while  they  strike,  are  fit  for  popular 
self-government.  The  people  of  Russia  are  answering  nobly  to  that 
test;  and  while  they  continue  in  the  same  spirit  —  as  I  believe 
they  will  —  their  new  government  will  be  impregnable  against  all 
reactionary  movements. 

The  second  ground  for  my  confidence  is  that  this  wonderful  change 
in  Russia  marches  with  and  is  part  of  the  mighty  and  I  believe  irresis- 
tible movement  of  the  whole  world  to  substitute  democracy  for 
autocracy  in  human  government,  and  to  build  up  the  structure  of 
justice  and  liberty,  of  right  and  duty  and  service,  from  the  bottom 
instead  of  accepting  them  from  human  superiors.  No  earthly  power 
can  reverse  or  stop  that  movement.  It  may  appear  to  be  delayed  or 
hindered  here  and  there,  but  it  continually  proceeds  everywhere, 
nevertheless.  No  human  power  can  put  Russia  back  where  she  was 
but  a  few  weeks  ago.  Whatever  comes  of  good  or  ill,  the  old  order 
cannot  return.  Russia  must  go  on.  She  will  go  on,  and  the  hopes  and 
prayers  of  all  liberty-loving  people  of  America  will  go  with  her. 

Let  us  rejoice  that  this  terrible  war,  which  the  arrogant  ambition 
of  Prussian  militarism  has  forced  upon  the  world,  has  at  last  arrayed 
against  the  lingering  autocracies  of  Germany,  Austria,  and  Turkey 
the  combined  democracy  of  the  world;  that  upon  one  side  the  spirit  of 
the  age  maintains  the  principles  of  human  liberty;  that  upon  the 
other  the  spirit  of  the  dark  and  cruel  past  strives  for  the  continuance 
of  absolutism.  The  issue  is  not  doubtful.  A  little  sooner  or  a  little 


96  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

later  it  is  inevitable.    The  Hohenzollerns  and  the  Hapsburgs  will  fall, 
and  the  mighty  and  universal  forces  of  democracy  will  prevail. 

Ah,  if  only  the  good  people  of  Germany  themselves  might  soon 
remember  and  breathe  again  the  spirit  of  their  earlier  days  —  the 
spirit  of  '48,  the  spirit  of  the  great  philosophers  and  poets  and  leaders 
who  inspired  the  patriots  of  that  time  with  a  passion  for  liberty! 

Sincerely  yours, 

ELIHTJ  ROOT. 

LETTER  TO  AUGUSTUS  THOMAS,  SECRETARY  OF  THE  INSTITUTE 
OP  ARTS  AND  LETTERS,  NEW  YORK,  APRIL  17, 1917 

I  am  unfortunate  in  having  to  be  away  from  New  York  on  the  23d, 
so  that  I  shall  be  unable  to  attend  the  meeting  of  the  Institute  that 
evening  to  join  in  greeting  and  congratulation  to  the  writers  and 
artists  of  Russia  upon  the  great  achievement  to  which  they  have  con- 
tributed so  signally.  They  were  the  voice  of  Russia  during  the  long 
years  in  which  the  Russian  people  were  denied  opportunity  for  politi- 
cal expression.  Through  them  were  communicated  the  impulses  of 
sympathy  and  hope  which  made  their  people  one  with  all  their 
fellows  in  other  lands,  who  were  pressing  on  the  development  of 
democratic  self-government  and  the  extirpation  of  autocrats  and 
dynasties.  To  these  men  whose  vision  and  lofty  courage  have 
inspired  the  literature  and  art  of  modern  Russia  remains  the  task  — 
even  more  critical  and  exacting  —  of  guiding  wisely  then-  new  free 
government.  The  conduct  of  that  government  has  been  admirable 
hi  its  wisdom  and  self-restraint.  Yet,  there  will  be  trials.  Turbulent 
and  untrained  spirits  within,  and  sinister  and  corrupt  intrigue  from 
without,  will  encourage  dissension  and  seek  to  destroy  the  new  democ- 
racy by  creating  those  divisions  and  controversies  which  paralyze 
power.  Faint  hearts  will  be  discouraged,  and  even  the  wisest  will  be 
often  in  doubt;  but  the  power  of  democracy  will  prevail.  Russia  will 
not  divide  or  be  led  astray,  because  the  unity  and  stability  of  a  for- 
ward-moving purpose  will  be  hers.  She  will  not  fight  her  battle  with 
her  own  self  alone.  She  is  one  of  a  great  company  of  free  peoples  who 
are  giving  the  lie  all  over  the  world  to  the  false  dogmas  of  autocracy, 
and  are  proving  the  capacity  of  humble  men  to  rule  themselves  with 
self-control  and  justice  and  respect  for  law,  and  to  maintain  their 
freedom  with  the  power  of  union  and  subordination  of  self.  Russia 
will  not  swing  idly  in  an  eddy,  but  will  move  on  with  the  world 
stream,  impelled  by  that  mighty  and  irresistible  force  which  urges  on 
the  development  of  thought  hi  our  lime  to  the  destruction  of  all  auto- 
cratic government  and  the  creation  of  universal  democracy.  Happy 


MISSION  TO  RUSSIA  97 

must  be  our  brothers,  the  writers  and  artists  of  Russia,  to  have  lived 
to  see  the  light  of  this  wonderful  day,  and  to  grasp  this  opportunity 
for  service. 

I  am  sure  the  Institute  of  Arts  and  Letters  in  sending  to  them  mes- 
sages of  cheer  and  hope  will  truly  interpret  the  feeling  of  all  America. 
With  kinds  regards,  I  am, 

Always  faithfully  yours, 

EIJHU  ROOT. 


ADDRESS  TO  THE  COUNCIL  OF  MINISTERS 
PETROGRAD,  JUNE  15,  1917 

On  June  15,  1917,  the  members  of  the  Special  Diplomatic  Mission  of  the  United 
States  to  the  Provisional  Government  of  Russia  were  presented  to  the  president 
and  members  of  the  Provisional  Council  of  Ministers  at  Petrograd,  by  the  ambas- 
sador of  the  United  States,  the  Honorable  David  R.  Francis,  who  said: 

Thoroughly  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  service,  these  Americans  have  cheer- 
fully responded  to  the  call  of  President  Wilson,  and  are  here  to  perform  an 
important  duty.  I  feel  it  a  great  honor  to  present  this  Special  Diplomatic 
Mission  of  the  United  States  to  the  Provisional  Government  of  Russia. 

Permit  me  to  introduce  to  the  Council  of  Ministers  the  distinguished  chair- 
man of  the  Mission,  the  Honorable  Elihu  Root,  former  Secretary  of  War, 
former  Secretary  of  State,  former  Senator  of  the  United  States,  always  a  true 
American. 
Mr.  Root  thereupon  made  the  following  address: 

T  llHE  Mission  for  which  I  have  the  honor  to  speak  is 
A  charged  by  the  Government  and  the  people  of  the 
United  States  of  America  with  a  message  to  the  Govern- 
ment and  the  people  of  Russia. 

The  Mission  comes  from  a  democratic  republic.  Its  mem- 
bers are  commissioned  and  instructed  by  a  president  who 
holds  his  high  office  as  chief  executive  of  more  than  one 
hundred  million  free  people,  by  virtue  of  a  popular  election 
in  which  more  than  eighteen  million  votes  were  freely  cast 
and  fairly  counted,  pursuant  to  law,  by  universal,  equal, 
direct  and  secret  suffrage. 

For  one  hundred  and  forty  years  our  people  have  been 
struggling  with  the  hard  problems  of  self-government.  With 
many  shortcomings,  many  mistakes,  many  imperfections, 
we  have  still  maintained  order  and  respect  for  law,  individual 
freedom,  and  national  independence. 

Under  the  security  of  our  own  laws  we  have  grown  in 
strength  and  prosperity,  but  we  value  our  freedom  more  than 

98 


ADDRESS  TO  COUNCIL  OF  MINISTERS  99 

wealth.  We  love  liberty,  and  we  cherish  above  all  our  pos- 
sessions the  ideals  for  which  our  fathers  fought  and  suffered 
and  sacrificed,  that  America  might  be  free.  We  believe  in 
the  competence  and  power  of  democracy,  and  in  our  heart  of 
hearts  abides  a  faith  in  the  coming  of  a  better  world,  in  which 
the  humble  and  oppressed  in  all  lands  may  be  lifted  up  by 
freedom  to  a  heritage  of  justice  and  equal  opportunity. 

The  news  of  Russia's  new  found  freedom  brought  to 
America  universal  satisfaction  and  joy.  From  all  the  land, 
sympathy  and  hope  went  out  towards  the  new  sister  in  the 
circle  of  democracies;  and  this  Mission  is  sent  to  express  that 
feeling.  The  American  democracy  sends  to  the  democracy 
of  Russia,  greeting,  sympathy,  friendship,  brotherhood,  and 
Godspeed. 

Distant  America  knows  little  of  the  special  conditions  of 
Russian  life,  which  must  give  form  to  the  government  and  to 
the  laws  which  you  are  about  to  create.  As  we  have  devel- 
oped our  institutions  to  serve  the  needs  of  our  national  char- 
acter and  life,  so  we  assume  that  you  will  develop  your 
institutions  to  serve  the  needs  of  Russian  character  and  life. 
As  we  look  across  the  sea  we  distinguish  no  party  and  no 
class.  We  see  great  Russia  as  a  whole;  as  one  mighty  striv- 
ing and  aspiring  democracy.  We  know  the  self-control,  the 
essential  kindliness,  the  strong  common-sense,  the  courage 
and  the  noble  idealism  of  Russian  character.  We  have  faith 
in  you  all.  We  pray  for  God's  blessings  upon  you  all.  We 
believe  that  you  will  solve  your  problems;  that  you  will 
maintain  your  liberty,  and  that  our  two  great  nations  will 
march  side  by  side  in  the  triumphant  progress  of  democracy 
until  the  old  order  has  everywhere  passed  away  and  the  world 
is  free. 

One  fearful  danger  threatens  the  liberty  of  both  nations. 
The  armed  forces  of  military  autocracy  are  at  the  gates  of 
Russia  and  of  her  allies.  The  triumph  of  German  arms  will 


100  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

mean  the  death  of  liberty  in  Russia.  No  enemy  is  at  the  gates 
of  America,  but  America  has  come  to  realize  that  the  triumph 
of  German  arms  means  the  death  of  liberty  in  the  world; 
that  we  who  love  liberty  and  would  keep  it  must  fight  for 
it,  and  fight  now  when  the  free  democracies  of  the  world 
may  be  strong  in  union,  and  not  delay  until  they  may  be 
beaten  down  separately  in  succession. 

So  America  sends  another  message  to  Russia;  that  we  are 
going  to  fight,  and  have  already  begun  to  fight,  for  your 
freedom  equally  with  our  own,  and  we  ask  you  to  fight  for 
our  freedom  equally  with  yours.  We  would  make  your  cause 
ours,  and  our  cause  yours,  and  with  common  purpose  and  the 
mutual  helpfulness  of  firm  alliance,  make  sure  the  victory 
over  our  common  foe. 

You  will  recognize  your  own  sentiments  and  purposes  in 
the  words  of  President  Wilson  to  the  American  Congress, 
when,  on  the  second  of  April  last,  he  advised  the  declaration 
of  war  against  Germany.  He  said: 

We  are  accepting  this  challenge  of  hostile  purpose  because  we  know 
that  in  such  a  government  [the  German  Government],  following  such 
methods,  we  can  never  have  a  friend;  and  that  in  the  presence  of  its 
organized  power,  always  lying  in  wait  to  accomplish  we  know  not  what 
purpose,  there  can  be  no  assured  security  for  the  democratic  governments 
of  the  world.  We  are  now  about  to  accept  the  gage  of  battle  with  this 
natural  foe  to  liberty  and  shall,  if  necessary,  spend  the  whole  force  of  the 
nation  to  check  and  nullify  its  pretensions  and  its  power.  We  are  glad, 
now  that  we  see  the  facts  with  no  veil  of  false  pretense  about  them,  to 
fight  thus  for  the  ultimate  peace  of  the  world  and  for  the  liberation  of  its 
peoples,  the  German  peoples  included;  for  the  rights  of  nations  great  and 
small  and  the  privilege  of  men  everywhere  to  choose  their  way  of  life  and 
of  obedience.  The  world  must  be  made  safe  for  democracy.  Its  peace 
must  be  planted  upon  the  tested  foundations  of  political  liberty.  We  have 
no  selfish  ends  to  serve.  We  desire  no  conquest,  no  dominion.  We  seek  no 
indemnities  for  ourselves,  no  material  compensation  for  the  sacrifices  we 
shall  freely  make.  We  are  but  one  of  the  champions  of  the  rights  of  man- 
kind. We  shall  be  satisfied  when  those  rights  have  been  made  as  secure  as 
the  faith  and  the  freedom  of  nations  can  make  them. 


ADDRESS  TO  COUNCIL  OF  MINISTERS        101 

And  you  will  see  the  feeling  toward  Russia  with  which 
America  has  entered  the  great  war  in  another  clause  of  the 
same  address. 

President  Wilson  further  said: 

Does  not  every  American  feel  that  assurance  has  been  added  to  our 
hope  for  the  future  peace  of  the  world  by  the  wonderful  and  heartening 
things  that  have  been  happening  within  the  last  few  weeks  in  Russia  ? 
Russia  was  known  by  those  who  knew  it  best  to  have  been  always  in  fact 
democratic  at  heart,  in  all  the  vital  habits  of  her  thought,  in  all  the  inti- 
mate relationships  of  her  people  that  spoke  their  natural  instinct,  their 
habitual  attitude  towards  life.  The  autocracy  that  crowned  the  summit 
of  her  political  structure,  long  as  it  had  stood  and  terrible  as  was  the 
reality  of  its  power,  was  not  in  fact  Russian  in  origin,  character,  or  pur- 
pose; and  now  it  has  been  shaken  off  and  the  great  generous  Russian 
people  have  been  added  in  all  their  naive  majesty  and  might  to  the  forces 
that  are  fighting  for  freedom  in  the  world,  for  justice,  and  for  peace.  Here 
is  a  fit  partner  for  a  League  of  Honor. 

That  partnership  of  honor  in  the  great  struggle  for  human 
freedom,  the  oldest  of  the  great  democracies  now  seeks  in 
fraternal  union  with  the  youngest. 

The  practical  and  specific  methods  and  possibilities  of  our 
allied  cooperation,  the  members  of  the  Mission  would  be 
glad  to  discuss  with  the  members  of  the  Government  of 
Russia. 

REPLY  OF  THE  MINISTER  OP  FOREIGN  AFFAIRS 

Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  Terestchenko  replied  to  Mr.  Root's  address  in 
English,  as  follows: 

IT  is  a  great  honor  to  me  to  have  the  pleasure  of  receiving 
this  Mission  which  is  sent  by  the  American  people  and 
their  President  to  freed  Russia  and  to  express  the  feelings 
of  deep  sympathy  which  the  Provisional  Government,  repre- 
senting the  people  of  Russia,  have  toward  your  country. 

The  event  of  the  great  revolution  which  we  have  achieved, 
makes  allies  of  the  oldest  and  the  newest  republics  in  the 


102  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

world.  Our  revolution  was  based  on  the  same  wonderful 
words  which  first  were  expressed  in  that  memorable  docu- 
ment in  which  the  American  people  in  1776  declared  their 
independence. 

Just  as  the  American  people  then  declared: 

We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident,  that  all  men  are  created  equal, 
that  they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  unalienable  Rights, 
that  among  these  are  Life,  Liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  Happiness.  That 
to  secure  these  rights,  Governments  are  instituted  among  Men,  deriving 
then*  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed.  That  whenever  any 
Form  of  Government  becomes  destructive  of  these  ends,  it  is  the  Right  of 
the  People  to  alter  or  to  abolish  it,  and  to  institute  new  Government,  lay- 
ing its  foundation  on  such  principles  and  organizing  its  powers  in  such 
form  as  to  them  shall  seem  most  likely  to  effect  their  Safety  and  Happi- 
ness. Prudence,  indeed,  will  dictate  that  Governments  long  established 
should  not  be  changed  for  light  and  transient  causes;  and  accordingly  all 
experience  hath  shown,  that  mankind  are  more  disposed  to  suffer,  while 
evils  are  sufferable,  than  to  right  themselves  by  abolishing  the  forms  to 
which  they  are  accustomed.  But  when  a  long  train  of  abuses  and  usurpa- 
tions, pursuing  invariably  the  same  Object  evinces  a  design  to  reduce  them 
under  absolute  Despotism,  it  is  their  right,  it  is  their  duty,  to  throw  off 
such  Government,  and  to  provide  new  Guards  for  their  future  security. 

So  the  Russian  people,  which  for  centuries  have  been  enslaved 
by  a  government  which  was  not  that  which  the  feeling  of 
the  nation  wished  or  wanted,  have  so  declared  and  shaken 
off  the  fetters  which  bound  them,  and  as  the  wind  blows 
away  the  leaves  in  autumn  so  the  government  which  has 
bound  us  for  centuries  has  fallen,  and  nothing  is  left  but  the 
free  government  of  the  people. 

So  the  Russian  people  now  stand  before  the  world  con- 
scious of  their  strength  and  astonished  at  the  ease  with 
which  that  revolution  happened,  and  the  first  days  of  our 
freedom  indeed,  brought  surprise  to  us  as  well  as  to  the  rest 
of  the  world,  but  the  day  which  brought  the  revolution  was 
not  only  a  day  which  brought  freedom,  for  it  brought  us  face 
to  face  with  two  enormous  problems  which  now  stand  before 
the  Russian  people,  and  these  problems  are  the  creation  of  a 


ADDRESS  TO  COUNCIL  OF  MINISTERS        103 

strong  democratic  force  in  the  interior  of  Russia,  and  a  fight 
with  the  common  foe  without,  with  that  foe  which  is  fighting 
you  as  well  as  us,  and  which  is  now  the  last  form  and  last 
strength  of  autocracy;  and  it  was  with  a  feeling  of  gladness 
that  we  found  you  on  the  side  of  the  Allies,  and  that  after  our 
revolution  there  was  no  autocracy  among  those  with  whom 
we  found  ourselves  fighting.  We  found  with  joy  that  in  the 
high,  lofty  motives  which  have  impelled  your  great  republic 
to  enter  this  conflict  there  is  no  strain  of  autocracy  or  spirit 
of  conquest,  and  our  free  people  shall  be  guided  by  those 
same  high,  lofty  motives  and  principles. 

And  now  let  us  stand  together,  for  we  pursue  the  same 
endeavor  in  the  war  and  in  the  peace  which  is  to  follow.  We 
representatives  of  the  Russian  nation  who  have  been  placed 
at  its  head  to  lead  the  Russian  nation  through  its  hardships 
on  its  way  to  freedom,  following  these  principles  which  have 
always  brought  a  nation  from  complete  slavery  into  complete 
freedom,  are  confident  we  shall  find  the  way  which  will  lead 
us  side  by  side,  not  only  the  Russian  peoples  but  its  allies, 
along  that  way  which  will  bring  us  to  future  happiness. 

The  revolution  of  Russia  is  a  moral  factor  which  shows  the 
will  of  the  Russian  people  in  its  endeavor  to  secure  liberty 
and  justice,  and  these  elements  the  Russian  people  show  and 
wish  to  show,  not  only  in  their  internal  affairs  which  we  our- 
selves have  to  lead  and  in  which  we  wish  to  be  guided  by 
these  principles,  but  also  in  our  international  relations  and  in 
our  international  policies. 

This  war,  which  was  brought  upon  us  three  years  ago  and 
which  the  Russian  revolution  found  when  it  entered  the 
struggle  of  free  nations,  left  but  one  door  for  us  to  enter,  and 
by  that  door  we  have  entered  and  we  shall  continue  in  that 
path.  These  Russian  people  strive  to  the  end  of  militarism 
and  to  a  durable  peace  which  would  exclude  every  violence 
from  whatever  side  it  may  come  and  all  imperialistic  schemes, 


104  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

whatever  their  form  may  be.  The  Russian  people  have  no 
wish  of  conquest  or  dominion  and  are  opposed  to  those  ideas 
in  others,  and  first  of  all  they  will  not  allow  any  of  those 
imperialistic  desires  which  our  enemy  has  formed,  manifest 
or  hidden,  to  come  to  good  in  whatever  sphere  he  may  have 
planned  them,  political,  financial,  or  economic.  This  con- 
stitutes the  firm  will  or  what  Russia  has  to  guard  herself 
against. 

There  is  also  a  second  great  thought  which  was  expressed 
by  that  memorable  document  by  which  the  nation  of  the 
United  States  and  its  people  at  the  day  of  their  independence 
declared  their  desires  and  wishes,  and  which  says  that  nations 
should  have  a  right  to  show  themselves  the  way  they  wish 
to  go  and  to  decide  their  own  future,  and  this  high  principle 
the  Russian  people  have  accepted  and  consider  that  it  must 
guide  their  politics;  and  they  consider  also  that  all  nations, 
however  small  or  great,  have  the  right  to  decide  what  their 
future  will  be,  and  that  no  territory  and  no  people  can  be 
transferred  from  one  country  to  another  without  their  con- 
sent. Human  beings  have  the  right  to  say  for  themselves 
what  they  shall  do  and  whose  subjects  they  shall  become. 

I  am  happy  to  see  you,  and  happy  to  say  that  there  is  no 
idea  or  factor  of  a  moral  or  material  kind  to  divide  us  or  to 
prevent  us  from  being  hand  in  hand  across  the  Pacific. 
These  two  great  people,  the  free  people  of  Russia  and  the 
free  people  of  America,  the  great  people  of  the  United  States, 
the  oldest,  strongest,  and  purest  democracy,  hand  in  hand 
will  show  the  way  that  human  happiness  will  take  in  the 
future. 

Allow  me,  therefore,  to  greet  you,  to  welcome  you  in  the 
name  of  my  colleagues  and  of  our  government  which  repre- 
sents our  people  and  to  say  how  happy  we  are  to  see  you 
here. 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  RUSSIAN-AMERICAN 

CHAMBER  OF  COMMERCE,  PETROGRAD 

JUNE  21,  1917 

ON  behalf  of  the  Mission  for  which  I  have  the  honor  to 
speak,  and  in  behalf  of  our  country  on  the  other  side  of 
the  world,  I  thank  you  sincerely  and  warmly  for  this  hospi- 
table and  sympathetic  reception.  It  is  very  grateful  to  us  to 
see  upon  this  list  of  speakers  the  names  of  so  many  men  dis- 
tinguished in  the  active  life  of  great  Russia.  It  is  very 
encouraging  to  us  to  see  represented  here  the  Provisional 
Government  of  Russia  and  the  officers  of  those  local  govern- 
ments, for  the  merit  and  perfection  of  which  the  Russian 
people  have  so  long  been  known  throughout  the  world,  and 
the  representatives  of  those  great  branches  of  finance  and  pro- 
duction and  associated  industries  without  which  no  modern 
civilization  can  exist. 

The  Mission  has  no  function  to  discharge  in  respect 
to  industrial  or  commercial  life.  That  was  intentionally 
excluded  from  the  scope  of  its  duty.  We  came  to  Russia  to 
bring  assurances  of  the  spiritual  brotherhood  of  the  two  great 
democracies,  and  we  came,  moreover,  to  learn  how  we  could 
best  do  our  part  as  allies  of  the  Russian  democracy  by 
material  as  well  as  spiritual  aid,  in  the  great  fight  for  the 
freedom  of  both  our  nations.  But  we  did  not  wish  that  any 
element  of  advantage  for  America,  any  project  for  profit  to 
America,  any  lower  or  more  material  motive  should  find  its 
place  in  the  message  that  we  bring  to  Russia.  Yet,  when  the 
war  is  over  and  the  world  is  by  victory  made  safe  for  democ- 
racy, then,  of  course,  as  between  brothers  who  have  fought 
together,  mutual  knowledge  and  confidence  and  friendship 
will  lead  to  all  those  relations  of  industrial  and  commercial 

105 


106  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

life  which  make  up  the  peaceful  activities  of  the  civilized 
world. 

It  was  not  easy,  my  friends,  for  America  to  make  up  its 
mind  to  enter  the  war.  America  is  a  peaceful  people.  We 
love  peace  and  we  hate  war.  Far  away  from  the  conflict 
across  the  ocean,  it  took  us  long  to  realize  the  true  meaning 
of  this  great  war  in  which  you  have  been  fighting,  and  it  was 
not  until  we  had  slowly,  step  by  step,  reached  the  firm  con- 
clusion that  OUT  liberty  was  in  danger  with  the  liberty  of  the 
rest  of  the  world,  that  we  nerved  ourselves  to  enter  the 
conflict. 

We  came  to  see  that  Germany  had  foresworn  and  repudi- 
ated every  principle  of  modern  civilization.  We  came  to  see 
that  all  those  rules  for  the  conduct  of  war  which  for  centuries 
civilized  men  have  been  formulating  and  agreeing  upon  to 
make  war  less  terrible,  every  one  of  them  was  violated 
intentionally  and  systematically  by  Germany.  We  came  to 
see  that  the  principle  of  action  of  the  military  autocracy  that 
rules  Germany  was  based  upon  a  repudiation  of  all  moral 
obligations  of  states.  We  came  to  see  that  Germany  had 
avowed  that  the  faith  of  treaties  was  nothing  to  her  unless  it 
was  to  her  interest  to  keep  them.  We  came  to  see  that  the 
law  of  nations  was  as  naught  to  Germany  when  it  thwarted 
her  purposes.  We  came  to  see,  finally,  that  the  military 
power  of  Germany  had  brought  back  into  the  world  the 
principles  of  action  of  those  dark  and  dreadful  days  of  a  bar- 
barous past  when  there  was  no  liberty  in  the  world,  and  that 
if  mankind  was  to  be  free  it  must  put  an  end  to  this  powerful 
and  ruthless  enemy  of  freedom.  And  so,  cheered  and  encour- 
aged by  the  freedom  of  Russia,  to  be  henceforth  our  ally  and 
our  friend,  we  entered  the  war,  and  we  are  going  to  fight  until 
the  world  is  made  safe  for  democracy.  For  your  democracy 
as  well  as  ours.  So  that  no  arrogant,  over-bearing,  military 
caste  shall  push  us  off  the  sidewalk. 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  CHAMBER  OF  COMMERCE    107 

We  are  new  to  war.  We  have  a  small  army.  We  cannot 
move  at  the  beginning  very  rapidly,  but  we  have  enrolled  for 
military  service  ten  million  men,  between  the  ages  of  twenty 
and  thirty.  We  have  first  to  train  officers,  and  the  few  thou- 
sand officers  of  the  regular  army  are  now  engaged  in  various 
camps  over  the  country  in  training  some  forty  thousand 
young  men  as  officers.  As  soon  as  they  are  sufficiently 
trained  we  shall  call,  and  have  ordered  the  call  of  five  hun- 
dred thousand  men  to  be  trained  by  those  officers.  Then  we 
shall  repeat  the  operation,  training  more  officers  and  having 
them  train  more  men,  and  go  on  so  long  as  it  is  necessary  to 
win  this  war.  We  are  mobilizing  all  the  industries  of  the 
country.  Congress  has  by  law  put  under  the  control  of 
the  President  over  250,000  miles  of .  American  railroads. 
All  the  manufacturing  establishments  are  put  under  the 
direction  of  the  general  government  and  required  to  manu- 
facture war  materials,  supplies,  and  munitions  at  no  greater 
profit  than  is  allowed  by  the  government  as  being  fair  and 
reasonable.  The  entire  food  production  of  the  country  is 
put  under  the  direction  of  a  chief  of  food  control,  and  that 
chief  is  the  gentleman  who  has  had  charge  of  the  Belgian 
relief  work  during  the  past  three  years,  Herbert  C.  Hoover. 
We  have  set  all  the  shipyards  in  the  country  at  work 
to  build  ships  by  the  thousand  to  take  the  place  in  the 
transport  of  supplies  of  those  vessels  which  are  destroyed 
by  the  German  U-boats.  In  the  meantime,  we  are  sending 
a  division  to  the  lines  in  France  and  Belgium  to  fight  there 
as  an  advance  guard  of  American  soldiers,  by  the  side  of 
the  soldiers  of  Belgium,  France,  England,  and  Russia,  who 
are  fighting  there.  In  the  meantime,  our  ships  of  war  are 
already  in  European  waters  engaged  in  the  crusade  against 
the  U-boats  which  are  destroying  the  peaceful  vessels  of 
commerce  that  are  carrying  supplies  to  Russia  and  Eng- 
land and  France  and  Italy. 


108  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

We  offer  you  no  comradeship  of  ease,  no  grudging  or 
stinted  cooperation,  but  the  assurance  of  action,  action, 
action,  until  the  time  when  the  new  democracy  of  Russia, 
crowned  with  the  greatest  achievement  of  history,  may 
stand  side  by  side  with  the  old  republic  of  the  United  States. 

Now  indulge  me  while  I  say  a  word  to  my  American 
friends  here.  It  is  not  enough,  my  friends  and  brothers  from 
America  in  Russia,  it  is  not  enough  that  our  Government 
sends  its  message  to  Russia.  It  is  not  enough  that  the  people 
of  America  look  from  the  other  side  of  the  world  with  hope 
and  courage  to  Russia.  You  Americans  who  are  here  in 
Russia  represent  your  country.  Your  attitude  towards  the 
Russian  democracy  and  your  spirit  will  be  interpreted  as  the 
spirit  of  democracy  in  America.  Your  fathers  and  mine  did 
not  win  and  maintain  our  liberty  by  pessimism.  We  won 
our  liberty  and  we  have  maintained  it  for  these  centuries  by 
confidence  in  the  power  of  democracy,  by  faith  in  the 
people.  We  have  maintained  peace  and  order  and  liberty  by 
respect  for  law  and  by  holding  up  the  hands  of  the  Govern- 
ment. Whether  it  was  an  established  and  settled  govern- 
ment, or  a  provisional  government,  or  a  revolutionary 
government,  that  government  which  represents  at  the  time 
the  will  of  the  people  for  the  maintenance  of  law  and  order 
and  associated  effort  in  behalf  of  liberty  and  justice,  that 
government  your  fathers  and  mine  have  always  maintained. 
Upon  your  Americanism,  upon  your  loyalty  to  your  own 
country,  do  it  now,  here.  Carry  no  faint  hearts  about  the 
streets  of  Petrograd.  Teach  these  people  in  Russia,  who  are 
new  to  the  government  of  democracy,  that  you,  who  are  old 
to  it,  have  faith  in  it  and  they  will  gain  added  faith  and 
loyalty  and  support  for  their  government  from  your  faith; 
and  so  you  will  be  in  harmony  with  the  people  you  have  left 
at  home,  who  believe  in  Russia  and  have  hope  and  courage 
for  Russia  and  pray  for  Russia. 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  SOCIAL  ASSOCIATED 
COMMITTEES  OF  MOSCOW,  JUNE  22,  1917 

rTIHE  Mission  for  which  I  speak  was  sent  to  Russia  to 
JL  express  the  sympathy  of  the  United  States,  of  the  entire 
democracy  of  the  United  States,  for  the  Russian  people  in 
their  new  found  freedom,  and  their  struggle  to  create  and 
maintain  orderly  self-government.  It  is  not  in  prosperity  and 
ease  that  one's  sympathies  go  out  to  a  friend,  but  in  struggle, 
in  conflict,  when  the  hard  tasks  of  life  are  to  be  accomplished. 
There  is  no  phase  or  part  of  Russian  life  with  which  the 
people  of  America  sympathize  more  deeply  than  they  do  with 
you  in  the  work  that  you  are  now  striving  to  accomplish. 
We  can  sympathize  with  it  because  we  have  been  through  it 
ourselves.  We  have  made  many  mistakes,  we  still  are  imper- 
fect in  OUT  government,  and  we  know  how  hard  it  is  for  a 
people  to  govern  themselves  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of 
justice  and  humanity.  And  we  have  had  more  than  one 
hundred  and  thirty  years  to  accomplish  our  task,  while  you 
have  had  but  three  months. 

It  is  not,  Mr.  President,  that  we  see  in  the  happenings  in 
Russia  since  we  came  cause  for  criticism,  but  we  marvel  at 
the  self-control,  the  kindliness  of  spirit,  and  the  sound  com- 
mon sense  that  the  Russian  people  have  displayed.  Believe 
me,  we  feel  that  in  the  work  that  you  are  doing  in  these 
committees  you  are  on  the  right  path  towards  an  assured 
and  permanent  democracy.  For  popular  self-government 
must  come  not  from  above;  not  by  fine  theories;  not  by 
formulas,  but  it  must  come  from  the  willing  participation  of 
all  the  people  who  govern  themselves.  That  independence 
of  individual  character  which  is  cultivated  and  developed  by 

109 


110  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

individual  effort  for  the  public  good  is  the  solid  foundation 
for  free  government.  It  is  the  hope  and  prayer  of  the  Ameri- 
can people  that  you  may  have  full  scope  and  opportunity  to 
develop  yourselves,  your  free  government,  in  accordance 
with  the  needs  of  your  character  and  your  life  in  Russia.  It 
is  a  cause  of  joy  to  the  democratic  people  of  the  United 
States  if  they  can  help  to  give  to  the  Russian  people  the 
opportunity  to  work  out  their  own  system  of  government  in 
accordance  with  the  genius  of  Russian  character.  It  is  a 
cause  of  joy  to  us  if  we  can  help  to  keep  the  new  Russian 
democracy  from  being  prevented,  by  the  terrible  military 
power  of  Germany,  from  establishing  and  developing  their 
own  free  government.  We  have  learned  in  free  America 
that  the  system  of  government,  the  principles,  the  motives, 
and  the  methods  of  German  military  autocracy  will  be  fatal 
to  our  liberty  and  fatal  to  yours;  and  we  rejoice  that  we  can 
help  to  save  both  great  democracies  from  that  frightful 
danger.  The  government  of  Germany,  the  social  system  of 
Germany,  the  socialism  of  Germany,  are  all  militaristic  in 
their  essential  nature.  They  shall  not  find  control  in  free 
America,  and  if  we  can  help  you  to  prevent  their  finding 
control  in  free  Russia,  we  shall  be  happy  in  feeling  that  we 
have  done  something  towards  perpetuating  the  ideals  of  our 
fathers  who  fought  and  sacrificed  to  make  us  free. 

I  thank  you  for  listening  so  kindly  to  me  and  for  permitting 
me  to  come  before  you  to  speak.  I  will  close  by  saying  that 
the  people  of  America  are  all  a  working  people;  they  work 
hard,  early  and  late;  they  love  liberty  and  they  work  for  it; 
and  their  hearts  go  out  to  you  who  are  working  for  the  liberty 
and  honor  of  your  country,  because  they  recognize  you  as 
brothers  in  a  common  cause.  Long  live  Free  Russia  and 
Free  America ! 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  MOSCOW  DUMA, 
JUNE  22,  1917 

I  THANK  you  heartily  in  the  name  of  the  Mission  from 
America  for  your  hospitable  and  flattering  reception.  I 
thank  you  for  your  kind  references  to  the  President  of  the 
United  States  and  to  that  free  democracy  of  America  which 
we  represent  to  the  democracy  of  Russia.  You  say,  Mr. 
Mayor,  that  Russia  is  ill  and  infirm.  I  have  heard  from 
many  lips  since  reaching  Russia  expressions  of  anxiety  and 
despondency  for  the  fate  of  the  new  democracy,  but  I  refuse 
to  believe  them.  Russia  is  not  infirm;  Russia  is  young  in 
her  democracy,  and  with  sincerity  of  purpose  is  groping  to 
find  the  right  way,  that  she  may  do  the  right  thing. 

We  in  the  United  States  of  America  have  faith  in  Russia, 
and  as  the  representatives  of  our  country,  we  carry  with  us 
that  faith  in  Russia  firm  and  unchanged.  Let  me  tell  you 
why  we  have  faith  in  you.  First;  because  we  know  that  you 
have  practiced  the  art  of  local  self-government,  through  such 
institutions  as  this  Duma,  with  success  and  fidelity  to  justice 
and  with  distinguished  honor  to  your  country.  That  is  the 
true  basis  of  national  self-government;  practice  in  local  self- 
government.  And  so,  although  you  have  been  deprived  of 
the  opportunity  for  national  self-government,  deprived  of  the 
opportunity  to  apply  your  ideas  of  democratic  free  self- 
government  hi  the  nation  as  a  whole,  nevertheless  you  will 
find  the  way  to  expand  your  experience  in  local  self-govern- 
ment until  it  is  adapted  to  the  great  task  of  guiding  and 
governing  the  entire  nation.  You  who  have  respected  your 
own  customs  and  local  laws,  and  by  the  force  of  your  local 
public  opinion  have  enforced  them,  will  establish  national 

111 


MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

laws,  and  by  the  union  of  all  the  cities  and  sections  of  Russia 
in  a  universal  public  opinion,  you  will  give  respect  to  the  law 
of  the  nation  and  will  enforce  it.  That  is  the  true  method 
of  self-government;  not  to  receive  it  from  above  by  consti- 
tutions, however  skillfully  prepared;  by  theories,  however 
brilliant;  but  to  build  it  up  from  below  by  individual  self- 
government;  by  habits  of  respect  for  law,  and  by  a  healthy 
public  opinion. 

The  second  reason  why  we  have  confidence  in  your  success 
is  that  we  know  the  kindly  heart  of  the  Russian  people,  the 
common  sense  of  the  Russian  people,  the  innate  respect 
for  the  rights  of  others  that  dwells  in  the  Russian  people. 
The  members  of  our  Mission,  sir,  have  frequently  spoken  to 
each  other  of  the  marvelous  spectacle  we  have  witnessed 
since  we  landed  upon  the  shores  of  Russia  several  weeks  ago, 
of  this  vast  people  practically  without  any  enforcement  of 
law,  practically  without  policemen  to  compel  observance 
of  the  rights  of  others,  yet  in  the  main,  with  few  exceptions, 
remaining  peaceable,  orderly,  respecting  each  other's  rights, 
considerate  of  each  other's  f  eelings  and  interests,  and  waiting 
only  for  the  construction  of  a  government  under  which  their 
extraordinary  qualities  of  self-control  can  make  a  firm  and 
perpetual  structure  of  law  and  order.  You  will  make  mis- 
takes; you  will  have  to  retrace  your  steps  here  and  there; 
you  will  find  imperfections,  but  you  will  step  by  step  go  on 
to  develop  a  structure  of  competent  and  successful  free 
self-government.  I  speak  with  confidence  because  I  know 
how  many  mistakes  we  have  made  in  America  during  the  one 
hundred  and  forty  years  through  which  we  have  been 
developing  our  free  self-government;  and  to  us  who  know 
how  hard  the  task  is,  how  many  mistakes  we  have  made,  it 
is  not  a  wonder  that  you  have  not  made  greater  progress  in 
the  three  months  of  your  freedom,  but  it  is  a  wonder  that 
you  have  done  so  well. 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  MOSCOW  DUMA       113 

A  third  reason  why  we  have  faith  in  you  is  because  we 
know  the  capacity  of  the  Russian  character  for  self-sacrifice 
for  an  ideal.  Many  Russians  have  given  up  their  lives  hi 
years  past;  many  Russians  have  lingered  in  prison;  many 
Russians  have  suffered  hardship,  in  order  that  Russia  might 
sometime  be  free;  and  we  know  it  cannot  be  possible  that 
Russians  now  are  unwilling  to  make  further  sacrifices  that 
Russia  may  remain  free.  We  know  that  Russia  cannot  fail  to 
value  the  prize  that  has  been  won  at  so  high  a  price  of  suffer- 
ing and  of  death.  We  know  you  must  love  liberty.  We  know 
that  Russia  cannot  be  materialistic,  wedded  to  ease  and  com- 
fort, indifferent  to  the  higher  good  of  her  people,  indifferent 
to  the  ideals  of  liberty  which  are  to  make  over  the  world 
and  lift  up  the  poor  and  the  oppressed  who  labor  and  suffer 
in  many  lands,  to  a  heritage  of  opportunity  and  freedom. 
We  know  you  cannot  fail  to  love  liberty  when  it  has  been 
bought  at  such  a  price  as  Russians  have  paid  for  it.  We 
know  that  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Russians  have  given 
up  their  lives  fighting  for  the  Czar,  and  we  do  not  for  a 
moment  believe  that  Russians  now  will  not  be  willing  to 
risk  their  lives  fighting  for  Russia  and  Russia's  freedom. 
That  is  the  test  of  a  people's  power  to  maintain  liberty; 
that  they  are  willing  to  make  sacrifices  for  liberty.  No 
people  can  have  liberty  without  paying  the  price.  There  is 
an  old  saying,  "  eternal  vigilance  is  the  price  of  liberty." 
More  than  that,  it  is  an  eternal  truth  that  constant  struggle 
is  the  price  of  liberty.  And  we  are  sure  that  Russia  will  not 
give  over  the  struggle  until  her  liberty  is  secure.  We  know 
that  in  the  Russian  heart  there  are  cherished  ideals  that 
are  far  above  the  material,  gross,  daily  needs  of  life.  We 
know  that  Russia,  free,  with  high  ideals,  with  courage  un- 
surpassed, jealous  of  her  liberty,  will  never  begin  the  career 
of  the  new  democracy  by  being  false  to  the  ideals  of  liberty 
in  the  world. 


114  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

There  is  another  and  broader  reason  for  our  faith.  It  is  a 
reason  that  has  grown  with  our  people  in  America  from  the 
days  of  their  early  struggles  against  cold,  hunger,  and 
savage  foes;  through  all  the  trials  by  which  they  have  won 
and  maintained  their  freedom;  it  is  that  we  have  faith  in  the 
triumph  and  perpetuity  of  Russian  freedom,  because  we  have 
an  abiding  faith  in  the  power  of  democracy.  You  are  not 
alone.  You  do  not  walk  alone  upon  the  pathway  of  self- 
government.  One  of  those  great  movements  of  the  human 
mind  that  no  man  can  control  or  measure  is  taking  place 
throughout  the  whole  world.  The  conception  of  government 
solely  by  command  of  a  superior  power  is  fading  from  the 
minds  of  men  throughout  the  world;  and  the  new  conception 
of  government  by  the  will  of  the  governed,  imposing  the 
limitations  of  justice  and  right  conduct  upon  themselves,  is 
taking  its  place  the  world  over.  Yesterday  was  the  day  of 
emperors  and  kings;  today  is  the  day  of  the  plain  and 
humble  man  who  works  and  endures.  The  progress  of  that 
majestic  movement  of  mankind,  that  great  development  of 
civilization,  cannot  be  turned  back.  It  may  be  retarded 
here  and  there;  it  may  be  held  for  the  moment  by  an  obstacle 
here  and  an  obstacle  there;  but  that  irresistible  progress  of 
mankind  cannot  be  turned  back  in  Russia,  in  America,  any- 
where on  earth.  It  must  and  will  proceed  to  work  out  its 
final  fruition.  No  man  can  measure  the  time  or  the  place 
where  that  fruition  shall  be  reached.  You  are  not  alone; 
your  history  in  Russia  during  the  last  two  months  is  but  one 
chapter  in  the  great  history  of  the  advance  of  the  human  race 
along  the  pathway  to  this  higher  civilization  which  comes 
with  freedom  and  universal  opportunity  and  enlightenment. 

The  one  obstacle  that  holds  that  progress  for  the  moment, 
and  only  for  the  moment,  is  the  sinister  power  of  the  mili- 
tary autocracy  of  Germany.  That  power  which  repudi- 
ates the  faiths  of  treaties;  that  power  which  avows  its 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  MOSCOW  DUMA       115 

purpose  to  violate  the  laws  of  nations  whenever  it  finds  it 
to  its  interest  to  do  so;  that  power  which  has  erected  among 
the  peaceable  people  of  the  earth  a  vast  military  machine 
against  which  no  unorganized  peaceable  people  can  stand; 
that  power  which  avows  that  no  moral  laws  control  the 
state,  but  that  the  morality  which  you  and  I  acknowledge  as 
obligatory  upon  us  in  our  relations  to  each  other,  has  no  con- 
trol of  the  state,  and  that  the  supposed  interest  of  the  state 
is  superior  to  all  moral  law;  that  power  which  has  revived 
amid  the  civilization  of  the  twentieth  century  all  the  worst 
of  a  dreadful,  barbaric  past  and  has  enthroned  and  is  endeav- 
oring to  enforce  upon  the  world  principles  of  conduct  which, 
in  cynical  disregard  of  humanity  and  law  and  faith  and  moral- 
ity, which  in  brutality  and  selfishness,  have  not  been  seen 
in  this  world  since  the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire.  That 
power  stands  now  as  the  one  bulwark  of  the  dark  powers 
of  the  past  against  the  triumphant  advance  of  the  light  of  a 
better  day  for  mankind.  No  peaceful  democracy  can  live 
beside  it.  America  feels  in  its  heart  that  it  cannot  live  in  its 
peaceful  security  by  the  side  of  the  German  military  autoc- 
racy, and  be  safe.  America  feels  that  the  new  freedom  of 
Russia  cannot  live  as  a  neighbor  to  the  military  autocracy 
of  Germany,  because  there  is  no  middle  ground  between 
defense  by  military  power,  and  subjection.  Our  faith  in  your 
working  out  a  system  of  free  self-government,  adapted  to  the 
conditions  and  the  character  and  the  genius  of  the  Russian 
people,  is  marred  by  but  one  doubt;  and  that  is  the  doubt 
whether  you  will  be  able  to  protect  the  right  to  develop  your 
own  free  government  against  the  malign  and  sinister  control 
of  German  autocracy.  And  it  is  because  we  know  that  your 
young  liberty  cannot  live  beside  German  power,  and  our  own 
liberty  cannot  live  beside  German  power,  and  freedom  all 
over  the  world  cannot  live  beside  German  power,  that  we 
have  come  to  say  to  you  that  we  have  entered  this  war  in  the 


116  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

service  of  freedom  for  you  as  well  as  for  ourselves;  to  fight 
with  you;  to  give  our  blood  and  treasure  with  you  for  the 
perpetuation  of  liberty  in  the  world,  Russian  and  American. 
We  will  stay  with  you  to  the  end  in  that  conflict,  certain  of  its 
triumphant  success;  and  we  will  stand  with  you,  our  old  flag 
with  its  stars  and  stripes  floating  beside  your  new  flag  of 
Russian  freedom,  in  the  triumph  of  liberty  over  autocracy. 
Until  that  time  comes,  our  labors,  our  blood,  our  treasure, 
our  brotherly  affection  and  our  prayers  are  with  you  in  your 
work." 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  WAR  INDUSTRIES 
COMMITTEE  AT  MOSCOW,  JUNE  23,  1917 

IT  is  a  great  pleasure  for  me  and  for  my  associates  in 
the  Mission  to  be  received  by  this  Committee,  because  we 
have  learned  in  America  to  appreciate  very  highly  the  ex- 
traordinary work  that  you  have  already  done  in  your  country. 
I  do  not  think  that  we  have  fully  appreciated,  however, 
the  difficulties  under  which  you  have  labored.  A  study 
of  the  conditions  in  Russia  since  our  arrival  reveals  those 
difficulties  to  be  far  greater  than  we  had  supposed.  That 
increases  our  admiration  for  the  courage,  the  persistency, 
and  the  public  spirit  with  which  you  have  carried  on  the 
great  work  of  the  last  three  years.  I  observe  with  some  dis- 
tress that  there  are  influences  operating  now,  attempting  to 
influence  the  industrial  conditions  in  Russia,  which  would 
tend  to  destroy  the  success  of  your  future  efforts.  Of  course, 
if  the  revolution  is  now  to  proceed  to  the  destruction  of 
all  industrial  enterprise,  that  must  end  your  work,  and 
there  are  plainly  some  malign  influences  which  desire  to 
accomplish  that  result.  I  have,  however,  the  greatest  con- 
fidence in  the  sincerity  of  purpose  and  the  strong  deter- 
mination of  the  Provisional  Government  at  Petrograd  to 
combat  and  counteract  these  influences  and  to  maintain  the 
industrial  system  of  the  country.  It  is  so  plainly  indicated 
by  the  conditions  that  the  way  to  maintain  industrial  effi- 
ciency and  continue  the  work  of  your  committee  is  to  stand 
by  and  support  the  authority  of  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment, that  I  cannot  doubt  that  such  support  will  be  freely 
and  continuously  given.  A  very  cheering  incident  —  more 
than  an  incident — a  step  in  the  progress  of  the  revolution,  is 

117 


118  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

the  action  recently  taken  in  Petrograd  by  the  General  Council 
of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates.  I  refer  to  the  resolu- 
tion of  that  General  Council  of  representatives  from  all 
Russia,  welcoming  the  association  and  cooperation  of  capi- 
tal and  labor,  of  industrial  enterprise  and  the  proletariat.  It 
may  well  be  treated  as  the  basis  for  the  future  development 
of  your  constitutional  government.  That  resolution  of  that 
Council  contrasts  so  sharply  with  the  incitement  of  the 
sinister  influences  that  are  attempting  to  destroy  the  indus- 
trial life  of  Russia,  that  it  may  well  be  accepted  as  the  authori- 
tative declaration  of  the  people  of  Russia,  so  far  as  they  have 
yet  been  able  to  secure  a  representative  assembly,  hi  favor  of 
the  preservation  of  industrial  life  and  enterprise. 

Let  me  say  a  word  about  our  work  in  America  along  your 
lines.  Of  course,  we  are  quite  new  to  war  in  America.  We 
have  had  only  little  wars,  and  the  idea  of  a  whole  nation 
mobilizing  its  industries  for  the  support  of  a  great  army  is 
quite  new  to  us;  but  the  people  of  the  country  are  so  thor- 
oughly convinced  that  it  is  necessary  for  them  to  defend 
their  liberty,  that  they  cannot  remain  free  and  indepen- 
dent in  the  same  world  with  a  predominant  militaristic 
autocracy  such  as  exists  in  Germany,  that  they  are  gladly 
yielding  themselves  to  the  constraint  and  sacrifices  of  the 
new  system.  We  have  had  a  little  army.  It  had  been  sup- 
plied by  ordinary  purchases  in  the  market,  and  by  very 
few  and  small  government  manufacturing  establishments. 
But  now  we  have  enrolled  for  military  service  ten  million 
men  between  the  ages  of  twenty  and  thirty.  We  have  the 
few  officers  of  our  regular  army  now  engaged  in  training  some 
forty  or  fifty  thousand  men  for  new  officers  for  commissions 
in  the  larger  army.  We  have  ordered  a  corps  of  five  hundred 
thousand  men  from  those  enrolled  to  come  out  just  as  soon  as 
these  forty  to  fifty  thousand  officers  now  being  trained  will 
be  ready  to  train  the  men.  In  the  meantime,  we  shall  go  on 


ADDRESS  TO  THE  INDUSTRIES  BOARD       119 

training  another  set  of  officers  to  train  another  set  of  men, 
and  we  shall  continue  that  as  long  as  it  is  necessary.  In  the 
meantime  we  are  sending  an  advance  division  to  the  line  in 
France  and  Belgium,  and  our  men-of-war  are  now  in 
European  waters  chasing  U-boats. 

Behind  this  provision  we  are  mobilizing  the  industries  of 
the  country.  All  the  railroads  —  I  think  over  250,000  miles 
—  are  put  under  the  direction  of  the  Government,  —  the 
first  time  in  our  history  that  this  has  ever  been  done.  All 
the  manufacturing  establishments,  makers  of  munitions  and 
supplies  of  all  kinds,  and  of  the  raw  materials  from  which 
munitions  and  supplies  are  made,  are  put  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  Government,  and  the  Government  is  authorized 
to  require  them  to  produce  the  necessary  supplies  at  prices 
which  shall  not  yield  any  profit  in  excess  of  the  profit  fixed  by 
the  President  as  fair  and  reasonable.  The  food  produc- 
tion and  distribution  are  put  under  the  direction  of  a  new 
department  of  food  production  and  supply,  and  for  the 
direction  of  that  we  are  utilizing  the  services  of  Mr.  Hoover, 
who  was  at  the  head  of  the  Belgian  Relief.  In  the  meantime 
also,  the  Government  is  putting  itself  directly  behind  and  in 
support  of  the  work  of  the  Red  Cross,  which  has  hitherto 
been  supported  solely  by  voluntary  contributions.  Very 
great  increases  are  being  made  in  the  contributions  for  the 
support  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  work, 
which  has  been  so  extensive  on  the  French  line  and  on  the 
British  line  in  France  and  Belgium,  and  until  the  break  with 
us,  also  on  the  Austrian  line,  and  it  has  also  begun  on  the 
Italian  line.  So  that  the  services  of  that  organization  for  the 
entertainment,  the  comfort  and  the  instruction  of  the  soldiers 
in  their  camps  and  immediately  behind  their  trenches,  may 
go  forward  on  a  larger  scale  than  ever  before. 

Our  friends  in  England  and  France  and  Italy  have  been 
very  kind  to  us  in  sending  over  in  various  commissions, 


120  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

gentlemen  who  have  had  great  experience  in  war  industries 
in  their  own  countries;  and  we  hope  to  profit  by  the  mistakes 
which  they  tell  us  they  have  made  and  which  I  am  told  you 
have  made;  and  profiting  by  these  warnings,  we  are  going 
to  try  not  to  withdraw  from  the  industries  of  the  country, 
for  the  purpose  of  the  fighting-line,  the  men  who  are  neces- 
sary to  carry  on  the  industries.  So  we  are  going  to  do  our 
best  and  we  are  going  to  keep  on  doing  it.  I  am  happy  to 
say  that  in  the  industrial  situation  in  America,  American 
labor  is  satisfied  with  the  conditions,  and  its  opportunity 
under  the  protection  of  law  to  develop  its  increasing  pros- 
perity by  evolution.  No  part  of  our  people  have  been  more 
cheerful,  loyal,  and  earnest  in  giving  support  to  this  whole 
system  both  of  raising  and  maintaining  an  army  and  of 
industrial  mobilization  for  its  support,  than  the  laboring  men. 
We  have  the  eight-hour  law  under  national  statutes,  but  the 
labor  people  of  America  cheerfully  and  with  alacrity  have 
assented  to  putting  into  the  President's  hands  the  right  to 
suspend  the  operation  of  that  eight-hour  law  and  to  call  for 
labor  during  much  longer  hours  and  under  more  severe  con- 
ditions, because  of  the  immense  public  necessity  of  pressing 
forward  the  work  in  every  direction. 

Mr.  Duncan,  one  of  our  Mission,  who  is  one  of  the  vice- 
presidents  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  assents 
very  heartily  to  the  statement  I  have  just  made  about  the 
attitude  of  our  laboring  people.  I  wish  that  the  laboring 
men  in  Russia  might  become  fully  acquainted  with  the  way 
hi  which  the  laboring  people  in  the  United  States,  after  long 
experience  in  maintaining  their  own  rights,  look  at  their 
relations  to  the  Government  and  the  need  of  the  country  at 
this  time. 

Now  I  have  talked  to  you  too  much  about  ourselves,  but  it 
is  sometimes  encouraging  when  one  is  at  work  very  hard  and 
very  earnestly,  to  feel  that  there  are  others  in  sympathy, 


ADDRESS  TO  THE  INDUSTRIES  BOARD 

engaged  in  similar  work  and  pressing  forward  in  the  same 
direction.  I  have  said  so  much,  in  order  that  you  may  feel 
that  you  have  not  merely  the  sympathy  of  rhetoric,  but  the 
sympathy  of  workers  in  the  same  cause.  I  want  to  have 
you  feel  that  you  are  not  alone,  but  that  in  America  the  good 
men,  the  loyal  men,  the  men  who  really  desire  better  things 
for  their  country,  who  wish  that  their  people  shall  be  free, 
are  earnestly  doing  the  same  kind  of  work  that  you  are 
doing  for  Russia.  You  have  our  most  earnest  sympathy  for 
the  future  of  your  great  undertakings. 

[There  followed  several  addresses  in  Russian  and  in  French, 
after  which  Mr.  Root  said] : 

Let  me  say  a  word  regarding  your  references  to  the  supply 
of  locomotives  and  cars.  The  first  thing  this  Mission  did 
after  its  appointment  and  before  leaving  Washington,  was  to 
recommend  to  our  Government  that  it  put  itself  behind  the 
order  which  the  Russian  Government  was  then  ready  to 
place,  for  500  locomotives  and  10,000  freight  cars,  and  that 
was  done,  the  Government  making  a  credit  of  $100,000,000 
and  arranging  with  the  manufacturers  to  expedite  the  filling 
of  that  order.  There  were  already  prior  orders  for  375  loco- 
motives and  about  10,000  freight  cars,  which  are  now  in  pro- 
cess of  being  filled.  I  suppose  the  first  installment  has  been 
delivered  by  this  time;  if  not,  it  is  no  doubt  upon  the  ocean, 
and  the  manufacturers  are  ready  to  go  on  with  deliveries 
under  the  old  order. 

The  new  order,  which  was  made  just  before  we  left,  for  500 
locomotives  and  10,000  cars,  will  come  on  right  after  those 
deliveries.  It  is  the  view  of  this  Mission  that  that  process 
should  be  continued,  our  Government  making  credits  and 
expediting  manufacture  for  still  further  orders;  but  the 
limit  of  the  possibility  of  supply  is  not  money,  not  capacity 
for  production;  it  is  shipping.  The  supply  of  locomotives 
is  going  on  now  and  will  continue  to  go  on  to  the  full  extent 


122  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

of  the  possibility  of  shipment  across  the  ocean.  We  have 
begun  to  build  ships  in  order  to  take  the  place  of  those 
destroyed  by  the  submarine  warfare.  It  takes  time,  as  you 
know,  to  enlarge  greatly  manufacture  in  any  industry,  but 
we  hope  before  very  long  to  make  very  material  additions  to 
the  shipping  of  the  world,  so  that  we  expect  to  increase  the 
supply  of  rolling  stock  for  your  railroads. 

I  will  add  also  that  investigation  has  shown  both  to  the 
American  experts  who  were  invited  here  and  to  their  Rus- 
sian associates,  in  recent  inquiries  into  railroad  adminis- 
tration, that  very  great  increase  in  efficiency  of  transportation 
can  be  brought  about  by  some  changes  in  organization.  You 
can  come  very  near  doubling  the  efficiency  of  the  rolling 
stock  you  have  in  this  country  now,  and  I  hope  that  will 
be  accomplished. 

Of  course,  when  any  industry,  whether  it  be  transportation, 
or  manufacture  or  distribution,  is  organized  for  one  set  of 
conditions  and  then  new  and  more  onerous  conditions  must 
be  dealt  with,  you  have  got  to  change  your  organization  to 
meet  the  new  conditions. 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  ZEMSTVO  UNION,  AT 
MOSCOW,  JUNE  23,  1917 

I  THANK  you  very  much  for  permitting  the  Mission  from 
America,  for  which  I  have  the  honor  to  speak,  to  visit  you 
and  to  look  into  your  faces,  and  to  listen  to  the  account 
of  the  great  work  in  which  you  are  engaged.  We  feel  that 
here  there  is  something  more  than  oratory;  there  is  service, 
and  that  is  the  real  thing.  Your  work  has  not  been  unknown 
to  us  in  America.  One  of  the  chief  grounds  for  confidence  in 
the  newly  formed  revolutionary  government  was  the  presence 
at  its  head  of  Prince  Lvoff ,  who  so  long  and  so  ably  directed 
the  affairs  of  your  union.  We  feel  that  you  are  not  merely 
engaged  in  the  necessary  work  of  supplying  the  Russian 
army,  but  that  you  are  exhibiting  to  the  world  the  highest 
evidence  that  Russia  is  a  living  force,  worthy  of  freedom.  For 
in  these  two  respects  you  show  that  you  are  building  up  self- 
government  upon  solid  foundations.  Liberty  is  a  natural 
right  to  which  all  men  may  aspire,  but  self-government  is  an 
art  which  must  be  acquired.  Liberty  without  the  capacity 
for  self-government  is  a  fatal  gift.  Now,  you  base  your  work 
upon  individual  enterprise  and  local  association  organized 
and  united  for  a  natural  purpose.  This  is  the  way  that  self- 
government  is  built  up  so  that  it  can  endure.  This  is  the  way 
in  which  the  self-government  which  preserves  and  maintains 
our  liberty  and  justice  in  America  was  built  up. 

People  wonder  how  the  old  bureaucracy  was  cast  off  so 
easily  and  suddenly.  I  think  I  begin  to  see  that  it  was  because 
underneath  that  cover  which  sought  to  repress  the  Russian 
people,  the  Russian  people  were  growing  in  capacity  for  free- 
dom. It  is  your  work  which  is  the  true  avenue  and  method 

138 


124  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

of  the  growth  of  the  people.  The  other  respect  in  which  I  say 
that  your  work  is  of  the  highest  importance,  and  is  the  highest 
evidence  of  the  fitness  of  Russia  for  freedom,  is  that  without 
arguing  or  reasoning  about  it,  you  are  illustrating  the  true 
principle  necessary  for  the  maintenance  of  freedom;  and 
that  principle  is  the  principle  of  service.  One  always  loves 
another  for  whom  he  has  to  care.  If  a  people  are  to  love 
their  country  and  be  willing  to  maintain  its  freedom,  they 
must  serve  their  country.  The  principle  of  free  self-govern- 
ment is  the  principle  not  what  I  can  get  out  of  the  coun- 
try, but  what  can  I  give  to  the  country.  The  bureaucratic 
government  which  you  have  cast  aside,  was  composed  largely 
of  men  who  only  thought  of  what  they  could  get  out  of  the 
country.  You  have  brought  into  the  life  of  Russia  a  great 
service,  people  who  are  seeking  to  know  what  they  can 
give  to  their  country.  And  so  I  have  abiding  faith  that  the 
government  which  is  being  built  upon  such  foundations,  will 
accord  with  the  character,  the  life  and  the  genius  of  the  Rus- 
sian people.  I  believe  that  you  have  not  only  been  serving 
your  soldiers  at  the  front,  but  you  have  been  laying  founda- 
tions for  your  liberty  —  the  liberty  of  the  Russian  people;  the 
foundations  upon  which  will  be  built  the  great  structure  of 
Russian  liberty  hi  the  future,  —  that  structure  which  will 
stand  for  many  centuries  to  come. 

And  so,  we  all  feel  honored  and  proud  to  meet  you  and  to 
hail  you  as  friends  in  the  great  work  of  liberty  and  justice 
the  world  over.  If  America  can  help  you  in  your  work  tell 
us  what  to  do  and  we  shall  be  glad  to  do  it;  for  while  peoples 
are  many,  separated  by  oceans  and  continents,  liberty  is  one, 
the  laws  of  justice  and  humanity  are  one  code  the  world  over; 
and  for  the  maintenance  of  these  laws  we  should  all  struggle 
together,  as  brothers  and  sisters  of  humanity. 


ADDRESS  AT  THE  MOSCOW  PEOPLE'S  BANK, 
MOSCOW,  JUNE  23,  1917 

I  THANK  you  very  much  in  behalf  of  the  whole  Mission 
from  the  United  States  for  your  very  kind  and  hospitable 
welcome.  This  institution  has  been  the  object  of  very  great 
interest  in  the  United  States.  We  have  long  felt  that  our 
banking  system  was  defective.  We  had  banks  which  were 
adapted  to  commercial  uses,  affording  opportunities  for 
the  commercial  and  manufacturing  people,  and  we  had  a 
great  system  of  very  strong  and  well  conducted  savings 
banks  for  the  deposit  of  the  savings  of  people  of  small  means; 
but  we  had  no  agency  through  which  the  ordinary  agricul- 
tural industry  of  the  country  could  be  accommodated.  We 
have  for  a  number  of  years  felt  that  the  proper  development 
of  our  agriculture  was  limited  by  the  absence  of  some  such 
institution.  Accordingly  we  have  studied  your  work  and 
your  institution,  and  we  are  full  of  admiration  for  it  and  for 
the  Russian  people  who  have  been  able  to  organize  it  and  to 
maintain  it.  We  hope  to  learn  from  it,  we  are  learning  much 
from  it  in  the  effort  we  are  now  making  to  establish  agricul- 
tural loan  banks  throughout  our  country  for  the  benefit  of 
the  agricultural  producers  of  the  country.  It  is  a  very  great 
pleasure  and  honor  for  us  to  be  received  by  you  and  to  listen 
to  these  explanations  of  your  institution,  and  we  thank  you 
sincerely. 

We  join  with  you  in  the  determination  that  the  national 
system  of  development,  of  finance  and  industry,  of  the  modes 
by  which  the  people  may  develop  their  own  prosperity,  shall 
not  be  taken  away  by  Germany,  either  by  force  or  by  fraud. 
We  feel  with  you  that,  unless  resisted,  the  imposition  of  the 


126  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

German  control  upon  our  country  would  result  in  having 
what  may  be  a  very  efficient  system  but  still  German  and 
not  ours;  and  we  feel  sure  that  the  result  of  such  domination 
would  be  that  we  should  become  a  subject  nation  to  the 
German  power,  and  we  do  not  mean  that  that  shall  ever 
happen! 


ADDRESS  AT  THE  MEETING  OF  THE  BOURSE 
OF  MOSCOW,  JUNE  23,  1917 

THE  Mission  from  the  United  States,  for  which  I  speak, 
appreciates  very  highly  the  hospitality  and  the  friendship 
with  which  you  have  received  us  here;  and  we  thank  you 
for  being  so  good  as  to  come  together  for  the  purpose  of 
meeting  us. 

This  Mission  has  no  concern  with  commerce  or  industry  or 
profit.  The  instincts  of  the  American  democracy  were  that 
the  vital  point  upon  which  all  commerce,  all  industry,  all 
profit  in  the  future,  and  liberty  itself  depends,  is  the  preven- 
tion of  the  domination  of  the  military  autocracy  of  Germany 
in  the  free  and  of  necessity  less  completely  organized  democ- 
racies of  the  world.  The  function  of  this  Mission  was  inten- 
tionally limited  especially  to  alliance  and  cooperation  in  the 
conduct  of  the  war  against  Germany.  We  wished  that  no 
one  should  be  able  to  say  or  to  think  that  this  Mission  had 
come  here  to  secure  advantage  or  profit  for  America  in  trade 
or  in  industry.  To  our  minds  the  domination  of  Germany 
is  like  a  gas  attack.  When  that  poison  gas  rolls  over  the 
country  nobody  can  breathe  except  a  German,  and  we  pro- 
pose to  join  hands  —  to  join  hands  with  Russia  —  to  destroy 
the  machine  that  makes  the  gas.  When  that  is  done,  when 
Russia  has  an  opportunity  freely  to  develop  her  system  of 
government  in  accordance  with  the  customs  and  genius 
of  the  Russian  people,  then  will  be  laid  the  foundation  for 
enterprise  and  industry,  for  great  undertakings  in  the  devel- 
opment of  your  vast  natural  wealth,  and  for  the  free  inter- 
course of  trade  between  you  and  the  rest  of  the  world,  in 
which,  we  all  hope,  mutual  friendship  and  labor  together  in  a 

127 


128  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

common  cause  will  include  the  people  of  the  United  States  of 
America. 

You  are  now  experiencing  the  feeling  of  uncertainty. 
Certainty  after  all,  is  at  the  basis  of  your  occupation.  It  is 
at  the  basis  of  all  trade;  at  the  basis  of  all  financial  develop- 
ment; at  the  basis  of  all  successful  enterprise.  Certainty; 
certainty  of  protection  by  government  and  certainty  of  pro- 
tection against  government.  Various  of  the  older  countries 
have  had  various  ways  of  securing  that  certainty.  By  cer- 
tainty, I  mean  that  when  money  is  invested  in  an  enterprise, 
in  a  mine,  in  a  farm,  or  in  a  manufactory,  the  people  who  are 
concerned  in  it,  or  who  are  invited  to  purchase  an  interest  in 
it,  may  know  that  there  is  a  government  that  will  protect 
them  in  the  exercise  of  the  right  to  conduct  that  enterprise; 
and  will  not  take  it  away  as  soon  as  it  becomes  profitable. 
Upon  that  the  prosperity  of  every  bourse  in  the  world, 
and  the  prosperity  of  all  enterprise  for  the  development 
of  all  the  wealth  of  all  the  countries  in  the  world, 
depends;  upon  that  security  all  these  things  must  rest.  In 
some  old  countries  the  natural  conservatism  of  the  people 
furnishes  the  security;  that  is  so  in  England;  it  is  so  in 
France,  and  I  judge  that  to  some  extent  it  is  so  in  Russia. 
I  say  to  some  extent,  because  you  are  so  new  to  free  govern- 
ment here,  and  there  appear  to  be  conflicting  ideas  in  some 
quarters.  In  the  United  States,  being  a  new  country,  and 
not  having  long-established  customs  of  many  centuries  to 
furnish  this  security,  we  undertook  to  create  it  by  putting 
into  our  written  Constitution  certain  rules  of  conduct  which 
were  binding  upon  the  Government;  that  no  man  shall  be 
deprived  of  his  life,  or  liberty,  or  property  except  by  due 
process  of  law;  that  private  property  shall  not  be  taken  for 
public  use  without  compensation;  that  no  law  shall  be 
passed  impairing  the  obligation  of  contracts,  and  other 
similar  rules;  and  by  this  Constitution  we  limit  the  powers 
of  all  officers  of  government,  so  that  they  have  no  official 


ADDRESS  AT  MEETING  OF  THE  BOURSE      129 

power  to  violate  any  of  these  rules.  If  any  public  officer 
undertakes  to  take  away  my  property,  or  to  prevent  my  just 
use  of  it,  he  is  a  trespasser,  and  I  can  prosecute  him  by  law 
and  make  him  pay  damages  or  punish  him  for  violation  of 
my  rights,  and  he  is  not  protected  by  his  official  character. 
No  public  officer,  no  president  or  governor,  or  executive 
officer  of  any  kind,  no  congress  or  legislature,  or  state 
or  local  body  can  overrule  the  judgments  of  the  courts 
protecting  all  citizens  in  the  possession  of  their  private 
property  and  the  exercise  of  their  rights  to  use  it.  Accord- 
ingly, when  the  securities  of  any  enterprise  are  offered 
for  sale,  in  the  American  stock  exchange,  everybody  knows 
that  if  he  buys  them  he  will  get  an  interest  in  the  property 
that  cannot  be  taken  away  from  him.  The  property  may  be 
good  or  bad,  the  enterprise  may  succeed  or  fail;  the  purchaser 
takes  those  chances,  but  one  chance  he  does  not  have  to  take; 
he  runs  no  risk  of  the  property  being  taken  away  from  the 
corporation  or  association  that  proposes  to  carry  it  on,  and 
no  risk  that  that  association  will  be  prevented  from  working 
out  the  enterprise  and  securing  its  fruits. 

We  shall  look  with  the  greatest  interest  to  the  work  of 
your  coming  Constituent  Convention  to  see  how  far  you  find 
it  desirable,  or  find  yourselves  able  to  include  guarantees  and 
safeguards,  against  destroying  the  fundamental  basis  of  enter- 
prise, upon  which  your  prosperity  and  the  development  of 
the  wealth  of  Russia  must  depend.  And  to  that  effort,  and 
to  all  your  efforts  for  the  establishment  of  a  new  and  ade- 
quate political  system,  and  for  placing  your  industrial,  and 
commercial  system  upon  a  sound  and  broader  and  more 
secure  foundation,  for  ensuring  the  political,  industrial,  and 
economic  freedom  of  Russia,  and  for  keeping  out  from  con- 
trol over  your  lives,  the  domination,  either  military  or  politi- 
cal or  financial,  of  the  brutal  and  arrogant  power  of  Germany, 
the  sympathy  and  good  wishes  and  hearty  cooperation  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States  will  ever  be  extended. 


ADDRESS  AT  A   LUNCHEON   GIVEN  BY  GENERAL 
BRUSILOFF  AT   GENERAL   STAFF   HEAD- 
QUARTERS, "STAFKA,"  JUNE  27,  1917 

On  June  27,  1917,  the  Russian  general,  Alexis  Brusiloff,  gave  a  luncheon  at 
general  staff  headquarters,  in  Mogileve,  in  honor  of  the  American  Diplomatic 
Mission.  After  the  luncheon,  General  Brusiloff  welcomed  the  Mission  ;n  the 
following  address: 

Mr.  AMBASSADOR,  I  am  glad  that  I  have  the  honor  to  welcome  you  as 
representative  of  our  new  great  ally. 

Russia  and  America,  —  these  are  two  worlds  divided  by  oceans;  but  it  is 
my  wish  that  you  who  have  conquered  distances  and  have  come  as  our  dear  and 
welcome  guests  shall  gain  the  impression  that  your  beautiful  country  is  not 
distant,  but  close  to  Russia.  Here,  as  across  the  ocean,  you  will  find  the  same 
banner  bearing  the  same  great  device,  —  liberty,  civil,  social,  political,  and 
national.  America,  which  has  long  ago  acquired  the  former,  has  now  declared 
herself  for  the  latter;  as,  without  the  independence  and  liberty  of  nations,  all 
others  are  mere  visions.  Having  just  passed  through  changes  such  as  history 
has  seldom  known,  we  are  now  deeply  satisfied,  feeling  that  our  glorious  allies 
are  strengthened  by  a  new  and  powerful  support  —  the  great  transatlantic 
republic.  Continuing  the  war  with  all  the  powers  at  our  disposal,  we  shall 
fight  not  only  for  our  own  cause,  fortifying  the  liberty  we  have  recently  acquired, 
but  at  the  same  time  —  hand  in  hand  with  you  —  we  shall  fight  for  the  right  of 
all  nations  to  shape  their  destinies  in  accordance  with  their  own  desires. 

With  deep  faith  in  our  common  and  just  cause,  allow  me,  in  the  name  of  the 
Russian  army,  to  welcome  our  great  democratic  ally  and  its  glorious  army,  and 
also  you  gentlemen  whom  we  are  glad  to  welcome  to  our  fraternal  military 
circle. 

RESPONSE  OF  MR.  ROOT 

I  THANK  you  sincerely  for  your  courteous  and  friendly 
greeting  and  for  the  kind  things  you  have  said  about 
my  country.  It  is  most  encouraging  for  America,  which 
has  entered  the  great  war  to  be  the  friend  and  ally  of 
the  new  democracy  of  Russia,  to  know  that  in  the  war- 
fare in  our  common  cause  against  the  hateful  autocracy 
of  Germany,  we  will  still  have  the  advantage  of  your  mili- 
tary genius,  which  the  world  esteems  so  well;  and  will  still 

ISO 


ADDRESS  AT  "  STAFKA  "  131 

have  the  benefit  of  that  bulwark  of  liberty  which  the  daunt- 
less courage  and  fortitude  of  the  soldiers  of  Russia  are  able 
to  maintain  against  the  aggressions  of  military  autocracy. 

We  are  peaceful  people  in  America,  but  we  have  learned 
that  we  cannot  continue  a  free  people  unless  we  prevent  the 
supremacy  of  autocratic  German  power  in  the  world.  We 
have  no  hatred  towards  Germany,  but  we  will  not  be  sub- 
jugated by  her,  nor  ruled  by  her.  We  have  learned  that  her 
professions  of  friendship  are  false.  For  a  long  time,  when  we 
objected  to  Germany's  murder  of  our  innocent  people,  men 
and  women  and  children,  upon  the  high  seas  through  her 
submarine  warfare,  Germany  put  us  off  with  friendly  words, 
and  specious  promises,  and  professions  of  desire  to  observe 
our  interests.  At  last  we  learned  by  her  own  confession  that 
she  was  but  keeping  us  quiet  in  order  that  she  might  have 
time  to  build  more  submarine  boats  to  murder  our  citizens 
more  readily;  just  as  Germany  sends  her  troops  to  frater- 
nize with  the  kindly  Russians  upon  your  front,  and  while 
protesting  friendship  there,  she  is  at  the  same  time  murder- 
ing the  Russian  soldiers  in  German  prison  camps  by  cruel 
and  inhuman  treatment. 

We  are  glad  that  you  know  the  truth  regarding  this  foe  of 
liberty  and  honor;  we  are  glad  that  you  know  that  no  faith 
and  no  morality  and  no  humanity  is  to  be  found  in  the  class 
that  rules  Germany;  we  are  glad  that  you  have  learned,  as 
we  have  learned,  that  if  we  are  to  maintain  our  liberty  in 
Russia  and  in  America,  we  must  be  able  to  make  sacrifices 
for  it,  to  fight  for  it,  and  if  need  be  to  die  for  it,  in  order  that 
our  beloved  countries  may  live  in  freedom  and  not  be  sub- 
jected to  a  foreign  power.  And  as  brothers  in  that  cause,  the 
greatest  that  the  world  has  ever  seen;  in  behalf  of  the  whole 
people  of  the  United  States,  I  give  you  the  toast:  To  the 
indomitable  Russian  Army  and  to  its  heroic  Commander-in- 
Chief ,  to  whom  be  honor  and  success  and  glory  to  the  end ! 


ADDRESS  AT  A  LUNCHEON   GIVEN  BY  THE 

MINISTER  OF  FOREIGN   AFFAIRS 

PETROGRAD,  JULY  4,  1917 

I  AM  sure  I  speak  not  only  for  myself  and  the  other  mem- 
bers of  the  Diplomatic  Mission  from  the  United  States, 
but  also  for  the  ambassador  of  the  United  States  to  Russia 
and  these  gentlemen  who  have  come  as  an  advisory  commis- 
sion to  endeavor  to  help  in  the  transportation  problems  of 
Russia  —  I  speak  for  them  all  in  returning  most  hearty  thanks 
both  for  the  expressions  which  have  been  used  today  and  for 
the  substantial  and  real  feeling  we  have  found  behind  the 
expression.  We  have  met  in  Russia  everywhere  the  most 
kindly  and  hospitable  reception.  We  have  been  met  with  the 
utmost  frankness  and  sincerity  and  helpfulness.  Every- 
where in  the  government  and  among  the  many  citizens  of 
Russia  with  whom  we  have  been  brought  into  contact  this 
has  been  true.  We  are  deeply  grateful  for  all  that  you  have 
done  for  us, and  for  the  spirit  you  have  exhibited;  and  we  shall 
go  back  to  the  United  States  to  carry  a  report  of  all  possible 
evidence  of  real  friendship,  real  cooperation,  real  union,  in  a 
common  spirit,  between  the  two  great  democracies. 

As  we  of  the  Diplomatic  Mission  are  about  to  depart  from 
Russia  upon  the  coming  Monday,  I  wish  to  say  that  we  leave 
Russia  with  cheerful  hope  and  confidence  for  the  successful 
accomplishment  of  the  great  task  which  the  people  of  Russia 
have  undertaken.  We  leave  with  renewed  faith  in  your  com- 
petency, in  all  branches  of  your  government  and  in  all  sec- 
tions and  grades  of  your  people,  to  do  the  great  work  which 
you  undertook  when  you  dethroned  your  czar.  And  we  base 
our  confidence  on  substantial  grounds  —  not  upon  patriotic 
words,  not  upon  the  expression  of  theories;  not  upon  noble 

132 


PRINCIPLES  OF  DEMOCRACY  133 

sentiments  alone,  but  upon  what  we  find  in  the  character  of 
the  Russian  people  —  upon  the  real  and  extraordinary  prog- 
ress which  the  Russian  people  have  made  in  organization 
under  the  most  unfavorable  circumstances  —  the  organiza- 
tion of  local  self-government  followed  by  the  organization  of 
local  governments  into  great  unions,  with  national  scope  and 
purpose,  which  have  been  so  efficient  in  making  possible  a 
strong  support  of  the  Russian  armies  in  the  field  during  the 
war.  And  it  is  a  knowledge  of  that  great  work  which  makes 
the  presence  of  Prince  Lvoff  as  president  of  the  Provisional 
Government  a  source  of  satisfaction,  and  of  confidence  for 
the  future. 

We  base  our  opinion  also  upon  the  evidences  of  capacity 
for  individual  enterprise  which  we  have  found  in  Russia  — 
the  capacity  to  inaugurate  and  carry  on  great  enterprises  by 
private  initiative  and  independently  of  the  government;  and 
we  base  it  still  further  upon  the  self-control,  the  essential 
kindliness,  the  tendency  toward  order  and  peaceful  relations 
among  the  men  in  all  Russian  communities.  These  are  the 
qualities  which  are  the  most  essential  for  free  government. 
All  of  those  qualities  which  have  wrecked  attempts  at  self- 
government  in  the  past  because  passion  became  supreme, 
seem  to  be  absent  from  Russian  character,  and  those  quali- 
ties which  have  made  permanent  self-government  by  the 
people,  seem  to  be  in  a  high  degree  developed  in  Russian 
character.  So  we  have  faith  in  you.  We  shall  go  back  and 
carry  a  message  of  confidence  in  the  future  of  Russia  and  a 
message  of  cheer  to  our  country,  because  we  have  no  idea  of 
a  fleeting  friendship,  but  a  certainty  of  a  permanent  and  per- 
sistent and  effective  ally  in  Russia,  in  the  great  war  upon 
which  we  have  so  recently  entered. 

You  so  very  kindly  referred  to  the  day  which  the  people  of 
the  United  States  all  celebrate.  That  day  was  marked  by 
the  American  Declaration  of  Independence  which  framed  the 


134  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

issue  in  what  was  really  civil  war  between  two  groups  of  the 
people  of  Great  Britain.  With  many  adherents  upon  both 
sides  in  the  American  colonies  and  in  England,  that  war 
completely  established  not  merely  for  the  American  colonies 
but  for  Great  Britain,  upon  a  broader  and  surer  foundation, 
the  principles  of  English  freedom;  and  Sir  George  Buchanan 
and  T  look  with  kindly  eyes  at  one  another  across  this 
table,  enjoying  the  inheritance  of  that  same  great  principle  of 
individual  freedom  which  triumphed  in  what  we  know  as  the 
American  Revolution.  That  principle  is  at  stake  again  in 
the  world  today.  Because  it  is  at  stake  again,  the  grand- 
children and  great  grandchildren  of  those  who  fought  in  the 
American  Revolution  are  joining  hands  with  each  other  for  a 
new  struggle  to  enthrone  the  principle  of  individual  liberty 
and  to  cast  down  the  principle  of  the  divine  right  of  one 
man  to  keep  a  people  in  servitude.  The  two  principles  can- 
not live  together.  The  Declaration  of  Independence  which 
marks  this  day  sets  up  the  principle  of  freedom  in  these 
words: 

That  all  men  are  created  equal,  that  they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator 
with  certain  unalienable  Rights,  that  among  these  are  Life,  Liberty  and 
the  pursuit  of  Happiness.  That  to  secure  these  rights,- Governments  are 
instituted  among  Men,  deriving  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the 
governed. 

That  is  the  principle  of  democracy.  That  is  opposed  to  the 
existence  of  a  divine  right  to  govern  others.  Governments 
are  instituted  to  secure  the  unalienable  rights  of  all  men  and 
of  every  man.  The  other  principle  —  the  principle  of  autoc- 
racy is  diametrically  and  eternally  opposed  to  the  principle 
of  democracy.  The  two  principles  cannot  live  together.  The 
conflict  between  them  is  inevitable  and  eternal.  One  or  the 
other  must  conquer.  We  must  be  either  all  free  or  all  slaves; 
and  it  is  in  defense  of  that  great  and  necessary  principle  of 
human  liberty  that  the  people  of  the  United  States  abandon 


PRINCIPLES  OF  DEMOCRACY  135 

their  security,  with  no  enemy  at  their  doors,  with  no  one 
inflicting  injury  upon  their  smiling  fields  nor  on  their  rich 
towns.  It  is  in  support  of  that  principle  necessary  to  human 
liberty  that  the  people  of  the  United  States  come  to  fight,  to 
shed  their  blood  and  then*  treasure  in  the  war  which  they  hate 
as  a  peace-loving  people,  in  order  that  our  children  may  all 
live  in  peace  and  in  justice  and  that  the  hateful  principle 
of  evil  that  has  come  down  from  a  dark  and  cruel  past  may  no 
longer  oppress  the  earth,  but  may  pass  away  and  the  new 
order  of  things  may  come.  No  one  can  tell  what  the  issue  of 
today  or  tomorrow  may  be!  No  one  can  tell  what  sacrifice 
and  suffering  stand  between,  but  the  ultimate  supremacy  of 
the  principle  of  human  freedom  is  as  certain  as  the  sunrise 
tomorrow.  It  cannot  be  turned  back.  It  may  be  retarded 
here  or  there  for  the  moment,  but  with  the  great  movement 
of  the  human  race,  the  conception  of  a  sovereign  power  as 
necessary  to  the  maintenance  of  order,  is  passing  away,  and 
the  conception  of  great  free  peoples  governing  and  main- 
taining order  by  the  laws  that  they  impose  upon  themselves 
is  taking  its  place;  and  the  majestic  progress  of  an  enlight- 
ened world  will  go  on  and  on  to  the  necessary  result  of  a 
triumphant  democracy  the  world  over. 

God  grant,  my  friends  and  all  of  our  allies,  that  the  day 
may  come  quickly  and  that  the  suffering  and  death  —  the 
agony  —  may  soon  end;  but  however  long  it  may  be,  we 
must  not  permit  human  freedom  to  end  —  it  is  better  to  die 
than  to  be  slaves. 


ADDRESS  AT  A  LUNCHEON  OF  THE   AMERICAN 
CLUB,  PETROGRAD,  JULY  6,  1917 

I  NEED  not  tell  you,  who  have  been  so  long  away  from 
your  home,  in  a  far  distant  land,  how  it  warms  the  hearts 
of  the  members  of  this  Diplomatic  Mission  to  find  them- 
selves once  more  in  the  atmosphere  of  America  and  Ameri- 
canism, and  to  hear  the  familiar  intonations  and  sounds  of 
that  best  of  English  which  you  have  been  speaking. 

I  think  all  of  us  received  many  messages  from  many 
friends  to  many  of  you,  delivered  almost  daily  in  conversa- 
tion, "give  my  kind  regards  to  so  and  so";  "remember 
me  to  so  and  so ";  "I  hope  you  will  meet  so  and  so;  he  is 
a  good  fellow;  a  good  American;  knows  what  he  is  about  "; 
or  "  he  can  tell  you  much  about  Russia  ";  too  many  to  be 
delivered  individually,  but  we  combine  all  of  these  messages 
of  friendship  and  old  acquaintance  in  one  message  from 
America  to  you  Americans,  and  the  message  is :  that  America 
is  awake;  awake  to  her  old  traditions;  to  her  old  ideals; 
there  has  come  back  to  your  country  the  spirit  of  the  earlier 
days,  and  you  need  have  no  fear  that  you  in  this  distant 
land  will  have  to  blush  for  your  country. 

You  know  what  has  been  done;  you  know  of  the  enroll- 
ment of  ten  million  of  the  young  men  of  America  for  military 
service;  you  know  that  forty  thousand  and  more  are  being 
trained  now  in  fourteen  different  camps  throughout  the 
country  by  the  few  officers  of  our  regular  army,  to  serve  as 
officers  in  the  greater  American  army  of  the  near  future; 
that  five  hundred  thousand  of  the  men  enrolled  are  to  be 
called  up  within  a  few  weeks  to  be  trained  by  these  officers, 
who  are  now  receiving  their  training,  and  that  then  the  pro- 

136 


ADDRESS  AT  THE  AMERICAN  CLUB          137 

cess  is  to  be  repeated;  more  officers  are  then  to  be  trained 
and  when  they  are  ready  another  five  hundred  thousand  men 
are  to  be  called  up;  that  that  process  is  to  be  repeated  as 
often  as  it  is  necessary;  you  know  that  our  ships  are  already 
in  European  waters  acting  in  concert  with  the  navies  of  our 
allies  and  protecting  the  ships  of  commerce  upon  the  seas 
against  the  submarine  attacks;  you  know  that  already 
engineer  regiments  are  in  France  aiding  in  the  preparation  of 
the  ways  of  communication,  the  railroads  for  the  carrying  of 
supplies  from  the  bases  to  the  front  of  the  French  and  Eng- 
lish lines;  you  know  that  General  Pershing  is  already  there 
making  the  arrangements  for  the  bases  and  the  lines  of  com- 
munication for  the  service  of  the  advanced  division  which  is 
to  take  its  place  under  the  Stars  and  Stripes  hi  that  line  of 
terrific  conflict;  and  you  know  that  already  the  efficient  men 
in  every  branch  of  commerce,  of  industry,  of  transportation, 
of  manufacture,  of  production  of  all  kinds,  have  been  called 
to  Washington  and  are  directing  in  concert  with  the  Govern- 
ment, the  mobilization  and  massing  of  the  entire  industrial 
capacity  of  our  country  behind  the  army  which  is  in  course 
of  formation.  Never  before  has  there  been  such  unity  of  the 
brain,  the  feeling,  and  the  determination  of  the  American 
people  as  is  exhibited  now  in  our  own  country.  You  are  far 
away  from  the  scene  of  that  great  action.  It  is  impossible 
for  you  to  play  a  part  in  that;  but  you  can  yet  serve  your 
country,  serve  it  most  effectively  and  most  beneficially. 

Let  me  tell  you  that  this  Diplomatic  Mission  is  returning 
full  of  admiration  for  what  it  has  found  in  the  character  and 
the  conduct  of  the  Russian  people.  Many  things  go  wrong; 
many  things  are  done,  which  upon  the  surface  appear  to 
justify  criticism;  but  I  beg  you  to  remember  how  many 
things  in  our  own  Government  go  wrong  and  appear  to 
justify  criticism.  That  is  one  of  the  essential,  the  necessary 
characteristics  of  a  democracy  in  which  individual  freedom 


138  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

is  preserved,  and  is  not  sacrificed  to  that  intense  discipline 
which  destroys  self-government.  I  think  it  is  wonderful 
that  the  Russian  people  have  preserved  the  peace  and  order 
that  reigns  here  in  Russia.  We  hear  of  a  disturbance  in  this 
place,  in  that  place,  in  another  place,  but  this  is  a  vast  empire 
which  "covers  a  sixth  of  the  habitable  globe,  with  a  hundred 
and  eighty  million  people,  and  when  you  withdraw  your 
attention  from  some  specific  act  of  disorder,  and  consider  how 
small  a  part  incidents  of  that  description  play  in  the  great 
life  of  a  people,  you  must  realize  that  as  a  whole,  the  self- 
control  and  consideration  for  right,  for  justice,  for  the 
rights  of  others,  displayed  in  Russia  during  these  past  few 
months  constitutes  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  world.  Search- 
ing for  the  reason,  inquiring  why  it  is  that  this  city  of  Petro- 
grad  is  so  peaceful  and  orderly  that  a  woman  at  any  time  of 
the  day  or  night  may  pass  through  the  streets  with  safety 
and  without  fear  of  molestation;  why  it  is  that  all  over  this 
land  order  is  preserved  without  the  compulsion  of  law  or  the 
force  of  the  policeman,  under  circumstances  which  we  know 
very  well  would  have  developed  widespread  disorder  and 
violence  in  our  own  country,  I  find  it  in  certain  essential  and 
inherent  qualities  of  Russian  character: — the  quality  of 
kindly  consideration  for  others;  the  capacity  for  united 
action,  for  systematic  cooperation,  for  the  attainment  of 
specific  ends;  the  capacity  for  organization  in  local  self- 
government;  and  in  the  capacity  for  the  organization  of  the 
agencies  of  local  self-government  into  greater  organizations 
with  a  national  scope  and  purpose.  These  qualities  furnish 
the  test  for  the  capacity  of  a  people  to  govern  itself.  That  is 
the  question;  not  little  surface  matters;  not  little  peanut 
politics  (I  do  not  know  that  Mr.  Rodzianko  will  know  what 
I  mean  by  peanut  politics,  but  you  Americans  know  what 
peanut  politics  are).  The  question  of  whether  a  nation  is  to 
maintain  its  freedom  depends  upon  the  character  of  the 


ADDRESS  AT  THE  AMERICAN  CLUB          139 

people,  and  if  you  want  to  know  whether  a  people  has  hope 
for  the  future  in  self-government  find  out  its  character. 
There  is  no  more  fatal  gift  than  the  gift  of  freedom  to  a 
nation  that  is  not  ready  for  it,  and  there  is  nothing  more 
certain  than  that  a  nation  which  is  ready  for  freedom  will 
maintain  its  freedom  when  it  gets  it. 

Now  I  have  said  you  can  serve  your  country  here.  You 
can  serve  it  by  being  true  to  the  spirit  of  the  American 
democracy  here.  How  did  we  win  and  how  have  we  main- 
tained our  liberty  with  peace  and  order  ?  Not  by  our  pros- 
perity; not  by  amassing  wealth;  not  by  building  palaces; 
not  by  our  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  miles  of  railroad; 
we  have  maintained  it  by  having  stout  hearts;  by  having 
faith  in  democracy;  in  the  competency  and  power  of  the 
American  democracy  to  meet  the  demands  upon  it  and  to 
solve  its  problems  and  to  win  its  fights.  It  was  so  that  our 
republic  was  built.  Our  fathers  suffered,  and  endured,  and 
sacrificed,  and  in  the  darkest  days  their  hearts  never  failed. 
We  have  seen  darker  times  than  Russia  sees  now.  We  have 
seen  times  when  the  American  dollar  was  worth  less  in  pro- 
portion to  gold  than  the  Russian  rouble  is  worth  now;  we 
have  seen  times  when  American  finance  seemed  more  desper- 
ate than  Russian  finance  is  today;  we  have  seen  the  time 
when  dissension,  disorder,  and  controversy  among  our  people 
seemed  to  be  more  bitter  than  any  dissension  or  controversy 
among  the  Russian  people  seem  to  be  now.  You  can  serve 
your  country  by  representing  in  every  office  and  every  home 
in  Petrograd  and  in  Russia  to  which  an  American  comes, 
that  spirit  of  American  democracy  here  in  Russia.  Make  it 
plain  to  all;  carry  the  light  of  triumphant,  and  courageous 
and  unflinching  democracy,  and  faith  in  the  capacity  of  a 
free  people  to  maintain  their  freedom  in  every  part.  This 
great  war  has  reached  a  point  where  the  question  of  victory 
or  defeat  is  not  so  much  a  question  of  military  preparation; 


140  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

is  not  so  much  a  question  of  numbers  of  men,  or  of  guns,  as 
it  is  a  question  of  who  have  the  stoutest  hearts;  who  will 
faint  first;  who  will  give  up  first;  who  will  lose  faith  first. 

You  can  help  our  friends  and  allies  in  Russia  by  being 
—  you  one  hundred  Americans  here  —  each  one,  the  center 
of  influence  more  potent  than  high  explosives;  of  influ- 
ence making  for  courage,  and  hope,  and  intrepidity,  and 
undying  persistency  in  the  maintenance  of  freedom  against 
the  German  autocracy.  You  can  help  to  put  courage  into 
all  Russia;  help  to  cheer  the  despondent;  help  to  maintain 
this  government  which  is  now  carrying  Russia  through  the 
doubtful  and  difficult  period  before  the  Constituent  Assembly 
shall  have  established  a  permanent  government  and  the 
people  begin  to  make  laws  for  themselves.  This  is  the  mis- 
sion of  all  of  you;  more  important  than  that  of  this  Diplo- 
matic Mission  which  has  come  from  America.  You  are  all  of 
you  envoys  of  your  country,  and  you  can  help  to  maintain  this 
great  alliance  and  support  the  armies  of  your  own  country 
when  they  get  into  the  field,  by  the  power  of  your  faith,  which 
can  move  mountains,  exhibited  in  your  own  proper  persons, 
in  your  intercourse  with  your  associates  and  your  friends  in 
Russia.  More  than  that,  by  your  faith  and  its  manifesta- 
tions, by  your  appreciation  of  the  qualities  that  make  for 
self-government  in  Russia,  by  your  faith  in  the  Russian 
democracy,  you  can  illustrate  and  bring  honor  to  your  people 
and  to  the  spirit  of  theAmerican  democracy.  You  can  make  it 
known  throughout  this  great  country  that  in  America,  Amer- 
icans believe  in  the  competency  of  the  people  to  rule;  believe 
in  the  competency  of  the  Russian  people  to  rule  themselves 
and  to  maintain  their  freedom.  You  can  have  it  understood 
in  Russia  that  the  motive  which  most  moves  America  is  not 
the  success  of  your  own  business,  is  not  the  making  of  money, 
the  promotion  of  commerce,  but  that  it  is  loyalty,  not  only 
throughout  America,  but  in  Russia,  and  the  whole  world,  to 


ADDRESS  AT  THE  AMERICAN  CLUB  141 

the  high  ideals  of  our  fathers,  the  high  ideals  of  the  American 
Republic,  for  the  lifting  up  of  the  great  mass  of  toiling  and 
enduring  men  throughout  the  world  to  freedom  and  oppor- 
tunity and  peace  and  justice.  Then,  indeed,  America  will  be 
honored  and  beloved  here  and  everywhere  in  the  civilized 
world. 


ADDRESS  AT  A  MEETING  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF 

LIQUIDATION  OF  THE  AFFAIRS  OF  POLAND 

PETROGRAD,  JULY  7,  1917 

IN  behalf  of  all  of  my  associates  on  the  Diplomatic  Mission 
which  is  now  about  concluding  its  visit  to  Russia,  I  thank 
you,  both  for  the  kindly  greeting  with  which  you  have 
received  us,  for  your  courtesy  and  friendship,  and  for  the 
appropriate  and  appreciative  words  in  which  you  have 
described  the  character  of  our  country  and  the  character  of 
that  President  who  is  now  in  the  forefront  of  the  great  battle 
for  human  liberty. 

There  are  many  reasons  why  representatives  of  the  free 
people  of  the  United  States  should  be  most  appreciative  of 
this  greeting  from  the  men  of  Poland.  It  is  not  merely  that 
as  children  we  were  taught  to  revere  and  honor  the  names  of 
Kosciusko  and  Pulaski  who,  with  others,  many  others,  of  the 
same  blood,  aided  us  one  hundred  and  forty  years  ago  in 
the  hard  struggle  of  the  impoverished  colonies  of  America 
to  achieve  then-  liberty;  it  is  not  alone  that  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  Poles  have  sought  opportunity  and  liberty  in 
our  free  country,  and  by  their  industry,  their  probity,  their 
good  citizenship,  and  their  high  character,  have  elevated  our 
conception  of  the  character  and  genius  of  Poland.  It  is  also 
because  as  lovers  of  liberty,  Poles  have  worked  with  the 
forces  of  civilization  to  advance  all  that  is  noblest  and  best 
in  humanity,  that  we  look  back  with  reverence  and  with  joy 
to  the  great  examples  that  Poland  has  given  to  the  world. 
It  is  what  you  have  done  for  us,  —  because  your  citizens  are 
with  us,  and  because  of  what  you  have  done  for  humanity, 
that  we  are  proud  to  be  honored  by  you  now. 

142 


AFFAIRS  OF  POLAND  143 

You  know  that  the  people  of  the  United  States  have  lately 
taken  the  hard  decision  to  enter  the  great  world  war.  It  was 
difficult  for  us  to  do  it,  because  we  are  a  peaceful  people.  No 
one  had  invaded  our  country;  no  one  appeared  to  be  taking 
away  our  liberty;  but  we  came,  step  by  step,  as  we  watched 
the  process  of  this  great  struggle,  to  realize  that  it  was  not 
merely  the  interests  of  the  Allies  in  Europe  that  were  at 
stake,  but  that  the  liberty  of  mankind  was  at  stake,  —  your 
liberty  and  ours  equally,  and  so,  still  preserving  in  the  midst 
of  our  wealth,  prosperity  and  ease,  those  great  ideals  that 
made  America  free,  we  determined  that  it  was  our  duty  to  be 
ready  to  sacrifice  treasure  and  life,  in  order  that  the  world 
might  live  free  from  oppression. 

We  are  with  you  to  fight  for  our  freedom;  happy  to  fight 
also  for  the  freedom  of  that  great  nation  which  has  given  to 
us  so  much  of  genius;  which  has  given  to  the  world  philo- 
sophers and  sages,  poets  and  musicians;  which  has  been 
the  admiration  of  mankind,  but  has  for  so  long  mourned  for 
its  own  home  and  been  an  outcast  from  its  roof -tree  and  its 
ancient  abiding  place.  We  are  happy  that  we  can  fight  with 
you,  while  you  seek  to  secure  again  your  birthright,  and  to 
take  again  your  place  among  the  nations  of  the  world  which 
you  so  well  deserve. 

The  policy  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States  has 
been  not  to  permit  any  divisions  in  its  military  forces.  It  was 
determined  that  we  would  not  allow  even  the  division  which 
would  necessarily  accompany  military  organizations  upon 
national  or  racial  lines,  to  interfere  with  the  efficiency  of  our 
forces.  We  are  raising  a  great  army  of  Americans  which  will 
include  Poles  and  Scandinavians  and  Irish  and  French  and 
Italians  and  English,  and  the  people  of  every  blood  on  the 
face  of  the  earth,  all  in  one  firmly  knitted  and  united  army, 
that  its  efficiency  may  be  the  greatest  possible.  But  for  that 
I  am  sure  you  would  find  great  Polish  legions  organizing  in 


144  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

America.  But  I  am  sure  that  the  world  will  see  many  thou- 
sands of  Poles  coming  from  the  citizenship  of  the  United 
States,  fighting  under  our  Stars  and  Stripes,  happy  to  meet 
danger  and  glad  to  die,  if  need  be,  for  the  liberty  of  their 
adopted  country,  and  for  the  liberty  of  their  fatherland. 

Union  and  strength,  —  all  united  without  division  or  dis- 
tinction, —  is  the  watchword  under  which  we  may  best 
accomplish  the  great  result  we  all  seek.  Our  way  is  clear. 
No  doubt  need  beset  us  or  make  our  steps  to  falter.  We 
know,  all  of  us  know,  that  liberty  is  impossible,  either  for  us 
or  others,  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  military  autocracy  of 
Germany.  We  know,  all  of  us  know,  that  no  Poland  can 
arise  again  from  the  ashes  of  the  past  if  that  military  autoc- 
racy is  dominant  in  Europe;  and  our  pathway  is  clear. 
Germany  must  be  defeated,  and  Poles  and  Americans  alike 
will  do  their  duty  to  accomplish  this  great  defeat.  Ah! 
happy  men,  happy  men  whose  lot  has  fallen  in  this  great 
era!  Happy  men  who,  after  all  these  long  years,  after  these 
many  generations  of  helplessness  and  despair,  at  last,  at  last, 
find  it  in  your  lives  to  make  your  sacrifices  for  the  liberty  of 
Poland.  Ah!  God  is  good  to  you,  God  is  good  to  you  that 
you  live  now,  not  in  the  dark  and  hopeless  days  of  the  past 
and  not  in  the  future,  where  our  children  will  only  have  to 
look  back  to  the  great  deeds  which  will  set  the  name  and  the 
fame  and  military  genius  of  Poland  again  on  the  pedestal,  as 
high  as  that  on  which  Poland  stood  when  it  rescued  Christen- 
dom from  the  hordes  of  the  Moslem  invader.  My  congratu- 
lations to  you  all.  America  congratulates  you  all,  and 
America  will  be  proud  upon  that  great  day  when  a  renewed 
Poland  shall  take  its  place  among  the  free  self-governments 
of  the  world  by  the  side  of  free  democratic  America. 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  A  LARGE  BODY  OF  RUSSIAN 
SOLDIERS  AT  PERM,  JULY  13,  1917 

MY  companions  and  I  are  a  Mission  from  the  demo- 
cratic republic  of  America  to  the  Russian  people.  We 
came  across  the  sea  to  Russia  to  say  to  the  Russian 
people  that  Americans  are  their  friends,  and  have  gone 
into  this  great  war  to  fight  with  Russians  for  the  liberty  of 
Russia  and  of  America  against  the  overbearing  and  oppres- 
sive military  autocracy  of  Germany.  When  we  came  we  were 
alarmed  by  the  confusion  which  had  followed  your  glorious 
revolution.  You  had  gained  your  freedom;  you  had  cast 
off  the  discipline  of  the  superior  powers  of  the  bureaucratic 
government  that  oppressed  you;  you  had  not  yet  gained 
that  new  discipline,  that  new  capacity  to  work  together  for 
a  common  object,  which  comes  with  the  training  and  experi- 
ence of  free  self-government.  There  was  confusion;  there 
was  lack  of  that  discipline  which  is  necessary  to  enable  an 
army  to  fight  successfully  and  to  win  victories  over  its 
enemy.  But,  God  be  praised,  you  are  now  acquiring  that 
discipline  and  capacity  to  work  together  for  victory  over 
your  enemy.  God  sent  a  great  man  to  be  your  leader  in 
Kerensky,  and  under  his  leadership,  under  his  appeals  to  the 
soldiers  at  the  front,  discipline  has  been  restored.  And 
under  that  great  general,  whose  fame  will  live  forever, 
Brusiloff,  under  the  lead  of  Brusiloff  at  the  front,  the  soldiers 
of  Russia  on  the  18th  of  June  marched  again  against  the 
German  foe;  and  on  the  18th  of  June  the  Russian  army 
advanced  with  perfect  discipline,  with  perfect  enthusiasm, 
with  perfect  courage,  and  won  another  victory,  as  glorious  as 
any  ever  won  by  Russian  arms,  because  it  was  a  victory  over 

145 


146  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

the  forces  that  were  tending  to  destroy  Russian  discipline, 
and  a  victory  over  the  enemy  as  well.  That  discipline,  that 
spirit,  that  capacity  to  fight  together  against  the  enemy,  has 
appeared  throughout  the  entire  front  from  Riga  to  the 
Caucasus  and  Persia.  When  you  reach  the  front  you  will 
come  to  an  army  that  is  inspired  by  love  for  Russia;  an 
army  steadied  by  renewed  confidence  in  its  superior  officers 
who  are  leading  it  to  victory,  and  an  army  that  is  inspired 
by  the  determination  to  maintain  the  liberty  you  have 
won  by  your  great  revolution.  Let  me  tell  you  that  your 
liberty  cannot  be  preserved  unless  you  are  willing  to  make 
sacrifices  for  it,  to  fight  for  it,  to  risk  your  lives  for  it.  I 
tell  you  this  because  I  come  from  a  people  who  won  their 
liberty  one  hundred  and  forty  years  ago  and  have  been 
struggling  to  maintain  it  ever  since.  Your  liberty  which  you 
have  today  will  be  taken  from  you  unless  you  have  the 
strength  and  the  courage  to  maintain  it.  No  one  in  this 
world,  no  nation,  ever  kept  its  liberty  unless  it  had  the 
strength  and  the  courage  and  will  to  defend  it.  You  are 
going  to  the  front  to  fight  with  brave  comrades,  under  great 
generals,  for  the  greatest  cause  on  earth;  the  liberty,  the 
equality  and  the  independent  manhood  of  the  one  hundred 
and  eighty  million  people  of  free  Russia.  As  you  fight,  will- 
ing to  die  if  need  be,  you  are  helping  to  hand  down  to  your 
children  and  your  children's  children,  the  liberty  that  you 
have  won  and  that  you  are  preserving.  As  you  go  to  the 
front,  as  you  go  into  battle,  we  pray  that  God's  blessings  may 
go  with  you  and  keep  you  safe,  and  enable  you  to  do  the  full 
service  of  free  men  for  your  free  country. 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  A  GATHERING  OF  SOLDIERS  AND 
CITIZENS  AT  NAZUVAESKAYA,  JULY  14,  1917 

UPON  this  train  are  the  members  of  a  Mission  sent 
across  the  sea  from  America,  half-way  around  the 
world,  to  bring  a  message  of  friendship  and  loyal  com- 
radeship to  the  democracy  of  Russia.  In  that  distant 
land  young  men  are  gathering,  as  you  are  gathered,  to 
fight  for  liberty,  for  American  liberty  and  Russian  liberty, 
against  the  common  foe,  the  military  autocracy  of  Ger- 
many; and  they  will  fight,  as  you  will  fight  to  the  end, 
until  victory  crowns  the  flag  of  freedom  in  the  battle  against 
oppression  and  autocracy.  More  than  one  hundred  years 
ago  on  this  great  day  the  people  of  France,  the  plain  people 
of  France,  began  their  wonderful  fight  for  their  liberty  which 
they  still  maintain  under  the  same  flag  under  which  they 
fought  for  it,  to  the  sound  of  the  same  air  that  you  have  been 
playing  here  today,  the  Marseillaise.  With  their  sufferings 
and  sacrifices,  with  their  blood,  it  was  the  people  of  France 
who  taught  you  and  taught  us  that  those  who  deserve 
liberty  must  be  willing  to  fight  for  it.  You  and  we  will  still 
fight,  side  by  side,  with  the  men  of  France,  for  their  liberty 
and  ours,  and  you  and  we  will  continue  the  struggle  until  we 
know  that  our  children  will  inherit  our  lands  in  freedom, 
subject  to  no  autocrat,  subject  to  no  oppressive  class;  free 
men,  each  one  his  own  master,  the  master  of  his  own  fate; 
until  a  great,  free,  and  happy  people  shall  govern  them- 
selves under  the  law  of  justice  and  of  liberty.  Our  blessings 
go  with  you,  young  men  of  Russia,  as  you  go  to  fight  your 
country's  battles,  and  the  world's  battles,  for  the  noblest 

147 


148  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

cause  that  ever  lifted  up  the  head  of  man,  and  inspired  him 
with  deeds  of  valor  and  made  him  indifferent  to  death.  To 
you  we  pledge  the  cooperation,  the  aid,  the  comradeship  of 
the  men,  the  young  men,  of  free  democratic  America  until  the 
glorious  day  of  victory. 


ADDRESS  AT  A  RECEPTION  BY  THE  CITY  OF 
SEATTLE,  AUGUST  4,  1917 

fTlHIS  Diplomatic  Mission  which  is  now  returning  from  its 
JL  long  and  fatiguing  journey  to  our  new  sister  republic  on 
the  other  side  of  the  world  is  deeply  grateful  for  this  generous 
welcome  back  to  our  country. 

It  is  our  country,  though  each  one  of  us  is  far  from  his  own 
fireside.  It  is  our  country  because  on  the  Atlantic  and  the 
Pacific,  in  the  Alleghenies  and  the  Sierras,  on  the  Mississippi 
and  the  Hudson  and  the  Columbia,  there  prevail  the  same 
standard  of  independent  manhood,  the  same  love  of  justice, 
the  same  indomitable  determination  to  be  free,  and  the 
loyalty  to  the  same  ideals  that  have  made  America  the 
greatest  union  for  liberty  and  justice  the  world  has  ever 
seen.  This  is  our  country  and  it  is  our  home  and  you,  men 
and  women  of  Seattle,  are  our  brothers  and  our  sisters  in 
the  great  brotherhood  of  civilization,  of  humanity,  of 
Christianity. 

This  is  a  diplomatic  mission  and  it  is  not  suitable  that  in 
advance  of  reporting  to  the  Department  of  State,  from  which 
we  have  come,  we  should  talk  to  you  or  to  anybody  about  the 
special  circumstances  or  conclusions  of  our  Mission.  But 
I  cannot  refrain  from  saying  that  we  bring  back  from  Russia 
a  deep  sympathy  for  the  efforts  of  that  young  democracy 
which  is  struggling  now  month  by  month  with  the  hard 
problems  that  we  have  taken  one  hundred  and  forty  years  to 
solve  and  have  not  yet  solved.  We  bring  back  not  only  a 
deep  sympathy,  but  a  sincere  admiration  for  the  qualities 
of  Russian  character.  We  have  found  the  Russians  kindly, 
considerate  of  the  rights  and  feelings  of  others,  with  a 

149 


150  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

high  capacity  for  self-control,  with  an  extraordinary  ability 
for  united  action  and  with  a  noble  idealism  that  leads  always 
in  the  better  way  towards  higher  things;  and  we  have  an 
abiding  faith  that  Russia,  through  trials  and  tribulations, 
indeed,  which  she  cannot  escape,  will  work  out,  create  and 
make  perpetual  a  great  free,  self-governing,  democratic 
government. 

In  Russia,  almost  within  the  sound  of  the  guns,  I  think  we 
got  a  little  nearer  to  the  truth  that  lies  in  the  great  war  upon 
which  our  country  has  just  entered.  I  think  we  bring  back 
a  deeper  realization  of  some  things  which  it  has  been  hard  for 
the  people  of  the  United  States  to  appreciate.  We  see  now 
why  it  is  that  all  the  world  is  at  war.  We  see  that  for  cen- 
turies we  have  been  building  up  a  structure  of  civilization. 
We  have  fondly  believed  that  the  world  was  growing  better, 
more  humane,  more  just,  more  devoted  to  justice,  more  will- 
ing to  permit  our  fellow-men  to  enjoy  freedom.  We  have 
believed  that  the  old  dark  days  of  cruelty  and  tyranny  were 
passed  away;  and  the  nations  of  the  earth  year  by  year  have 
entered  into  solemn  covenants  to  observe  more  nearly  those 
divine  precepts  under  which  we  all  profess  to  live.  For  that 
cause  of  the  upward  progress  of  humanity  along  the  pathway 
of  civilization  to  a  true  Christian  life,  our  fathers  fought  and 
suffered.  In  that  cause  our  American  republic  was  born  and 
struggled  and  agonized,  and  all  that  is  best  and  truest  in 
American  nature  was  evolved  in  the  course  of  its  aid  and  in 
efforts  towards  advancing  that  cause  of  humanity  and 
civilization. 

We  see  now  more  clearly  than  ever  before  that  a  great 
military  power,  a  great  military  autocracy,  proceeding  upon 
the  principle,  animated  by  the  spirit,  avowing  the  purpose  of 
the  dark  and  cruel  past,  has  thrown  down  the  gauntlet  to  the 
civilization  and  the  liberty  of  our  day.  We  see  that  Germany 
repudiates  the  rule  of  morality  upon  nations;  that  the  con- 


ADDRESS  AT  SEATTLE  151 

trol  of  law,  the  law  of  nations  to  which  she  has  solemnly 
agreed,  is  cast  aside  the  moment  her  interest  conflicts  with  it; 
that  the  faith  of  treaties,  the  solemn,  binding  faith  of  treaties, 
that  faith  without  which  human  society  cannot  endure 
except  as  a  society  of  slaves  subject  to  despotism,  the  faith  of 
treaties  is  repudiated  and  held  as  naught.  We  see  that  all 
those  rules  which  a  kindly  civilization  has  agreed  upon  in  the 
past  to  ameliorate  the  horrors  of  war  are  cast  aside  with 
cynical  indifference.  We  see  that  for  the  sake  of  ambition, 
of  lust  for  military  glory,  laws  are  violated,  treaties  held  as 
naught,  peaceful  nations  are  overrun,  the  rule  of  morality  is 
repudiated,  the  laws  of  humanity  are  forgotten;  burned 
homes  and  devastated  lands,  outraged  women  and  murdered 
children,  mark  the  pathway  by  which  this  reincarnation  of 
cruelty  and  barbarism  is  marching  to  the  domination  of  the 
world.  We  see  now  that  the  principles  of  good  and  evil,  the 
principles  of  liberty  and  slavery,  the  principles  of  humanity 
and  cruelty  have  locked  horns  in  a  conflict  which  cannot  be 
downed.  We  see  that  the  ideals  of  our  fathers  in  this  republic 
must  go  down  to  earth  before  the  triumphant  march  of  this 
German  Moloch,  or  the  men  who  are  loyal  to  those  ideals 
must  muster  their  manhood  in  their  support. 

It  is  not  a  matter  of  sentiment,  of  something  far  away.  As 
sure  as  the  sun  shall  rise  tomorrow,  if  this  war  ends  with  the 
triumph  of  Germany,  this  country  will  become  a  subject 
nation,  for  the  principles  and  the  temper  of  the  German 
people  —  of  the  German  ruling  class  I  should  say  —  ever 
reaching  out  for  more  power  will  turn,  aye,  it  has  turned  its 
eyes  toward  the  fertile  fields,  the  vast  wealth  and  the  great 
unpeopled  spaces  of  this  rich  and  defenseless  hemisphere. 
Leave  your  wealth  on  the  sidewalk  and  trust  that  the  passing 
thief  will  refrain  from  taking  it;  send  your  richly  laden  ships 
to  sea  and  trust  that  the  pirate  will  let  them  pass  without 
interference,  rather  than  let  America  remain  rich  beyond  the 


152  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

dreams  of  avarice  and  unwilling  or  incompetent  to  defend 
herself.  Ah !  We  are  none  too  soon  in  beginning  our  prepara- 
tion for  the  preservation  of  our  liberty.  There  will  be  sacri- 
fices. Ah, yes!  They  will  be  bitter.  There  will  be  wounds  and 
death.  Some  of  us  will  die.  There  will  be  orphaned  children 
and  widowed  homes.  There  will  be  straitened  means,  sac- 
rifices of  comfort.  There  will  be  discouragement  and  doubt 
and  almost  despair,  but  in  the  end  there  will  be  a  great  free 
country  re-made  in  the  spirit  of  our  fathers  and  competent 
to  perform  its  divine  mission  of  carrying  liberty  and  justice 
throughout  the  earth. 

I  have  been  thinking  as  I  drove  about  the  streets  of  your 
splendid  city  this  morning,  of  that  great  migration  which 
saved  this  noble  and  smiling  land  to  our  American  republic. 
I  have  been  thinking  of  that  worn  and  travel-stained  and 
wearied  procession  that  came  across  the  long  trail  in  the 
forties  and  saved  the  Oregon  country  for  the  United  States 
by  taking  possession  of  it  in  the  name  of  the  American 
republic. 

This  noble  city,  these  splendid  palaces,  your  comfort  and 
your  luxury,  all  rest  upon  the  endurance,  the  hardships,  the 
sacrifices  and  suffering  of  those  early  pioneers.  It  is  not 
the  possession  that  counts;  it  is  the  building.  It  is  not  your 
luxury  and  your  comforts,  it  is  not  your  palaces  and 
your  wonderful  railroads,  that  toughen  the  sinews  and  ener- 
gize the  brain  cells  and  broaden  the  view  and  give  indom- 
itable courage  to  manhood,  that  make  a  state  like  this.  It  is 
the  hard  work,  the  early  sacrifices,  the  sufferings  —  and  the 
liberty  that  is  founded  upon  hardship,  upon  sacrifices  and 
upon  sufferings.  It  is  not  only  eternal  vigilance  which  is  the 
price  of  liberty;  it  is  eternal  struggle  which  is  the  price  of 
liberty.  The  test,  the  first  and  great  test,  is  not  between 
German  troops  and  American  troops,  or  German  troops  and 
French  and  Russian  troops.  It  is  between  the  great  and 


ADDRESS  AT  SEATTLE  153 

noble  qualities  of  American  nature  and  the  degrading  ten- 
dencies that  come  with  luxury  and  wealth  and  prosperity  and 
tend  to  drag  men  down  from  effort  and  from  sacrifice. 

We  are  in  this  war  and  we  have  got  to  stay  in  it,  and  we 
have  got  to  go  on  with  it,  and  we  have  got  to  make  our  sacri- 
fices, because  we  are  fighting  for  our  own  liberty.  We  are 
fighting  for  the  deliverance  of  this  dear  country  of  ours  whose 
freedom  and  justice  have  given  us  all  our  opportunities  and 
which  we  would  hand  down  undivided  and  unimpaired  to 
our  children's  children. 

Do  not  argue  about  the  cause  of  the  war.  Do  not  argue 
about  why  we  are  in  the  war  or  whether  we  should  be  in  the 
war.  Do  not  argue  the  whys  and  wherefores,  but  realize 
this,  that  the  time  has  now  come  when  America's  liberty, 
America's  justice,  the  independence  and  freedom  of  every 
one  of  us,  is  a  stake  for  which  we  must  fight.  If  we  are  not  all 
hypocrites,  if  all  our  profession  of  love  for  country,  if  all  our 
devotion  to  the  ideals  of  the  fathers  be  not  rank  hypocrisy, 
now  when  the  great  test  has  come  we  will  gird  our  loins  and 
go  into  the  battle  with  whole  and  fearless  hearts  and  fight  for 
America  as  no  people  ever  fought  before. 


ADDRESS  AT  A  RECEPTION  BY  THE  CITY  OF 
NEW  YORK,  CITY  HALL,  AUGUST  15,  1917 

A  great  popular  reception  at  the  City  Hall  was  tendered  to  the  Russian  Mission 
by  Mayor  Mitchel  upon  its  arrival  in  New  York  City,  August  15,  1917.  The 
welcoming  address  was  made  by  the  Honorable  Oscar  S.  Straus,  chairman  of  the 
Mayor's  committee,  who  said  among  other  things: 

It  will  ever  be  remembered  that  America  was  first  among  the  nations  to 
extend  its  official  recognition  to  the  new  Russia,  and  to  welcome  her  to  the 
family  of  democratic  nations.  The  President  deemed  it  of  the  first  importance 
to  interpret  the  spirit  of  our  great  democracy,  with  its  trials,  struggles,  and 
triumphs,  to  our  youngest  co-partner  and  ally,  and  he  selected  from  among  all 
our  citizens  the  foremost  of  our  constructive  statesmen,  and  placed  him  at  the 
head  of  this  important  and  extraordinary  Mission. 

Then  the  Mayor  presented  to  Mr.  Root  the  first  medal  of  valor  of  the  National 
Arts  Club,  awarded  to  Mr.  Root  for  his  acceptance  of  what  the  Mayor  called  "  the 
very  real  hazards  of  this  Mission."  He  then  introduced  Mr.  Root,  who  spoke  as 
follows: 

T  I  iHIS  medal  is  the  first  object  of  desire,  the  first  fruit  of 
J.  this  Mission,  which  has  not  been  shared  with  perfect 
equality  among  all  the  nine  members  of  the  mission.  I  hope 
that  it  will  not  prove  a  golden  apple  of  discord  among  us.  I 
must  attribute  the  selection  of  myself  as  its  recipient  to  that 
friendship  that  is  so  grateful  to  the  heart  among  the  people  of 
my  own  home.  I  beg  you,  sir,  to  convey  to  the  National  Arts 
Club  an  expression  of  my  sincere  and  grateful  appreciation 
for  the  undeserved  honor  which  they  have  done  me. 

The  duty  which  was  imposed  upon  the  special  Diplomatic 
Mission  to  Russia  was  one  of  very  great  importance  and  signi- 
ficance, but  its  performance  required  no  extraordinary 
qualities  and  involved  no  extraordinary  merit.  The  way  was 
plain  and  we  had,  each  one  of  us,  merely  to  do  our  bit  as  best 
we  could  in  the  discharge  of  a  simple  and  imperative  duty. 
We  did  the  best  we  knew  how.  We  did  it  with  the  most 

154 


ADDRESS  AT  NEW  YORK  CITY  HALL         155 

perfect  harmony  and  with  whatever  strength  comes  from 
united  action.  Drawn  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  selected 
with  an  evident  purpose  to  represent  different  points  of  view 
of  the  American  people  —  a  soldier,  a  sailor,  a  manufacturer, 
a  retired  capitalist,  a  banker,  a  labor  leader,  a  socialist,  a 
religious  worker,  a  New  York  lawyer  —  we  all  were  abso- 
lutely united  in  our  conception  of  the  spirit  of  our  mission 
and  in  the  union  of  effort  to  perform  our  duty.  Yet  it  is 
inexpressibly  grateful  to  us,  sir,  that  in  this  great  city  to 
which  we  now  return,  we  are  thought  to  have  done  useful 
service,  and  that  the  belief  in  the  usefulness  of  our  service  is 
sufficiently  strong  to  move  you  and  the  distinguished  citizens 
of  New  York  who  are  about  this  circle  to  this  outward 
manifestation  of  approval. 

It  is  not  the  first  time  that  the  importance  of  the  cause  has 
been  transferred  to  the  individuals  who  have  represented  the 
cause.  It  was  a  great  cause,  it  was  a  great  errand.  There 
never  was  in  history  a  people  finding  itself  in  a  more  difficult 
and  perilous  position  than  the  people  of  Russia  found  them- 
selves in  a  few  months  ago.  When  the  Czar  was  removed  and 
his  government  was  driven  out,  there  was  left  a  great  people 
of  one  hundred  and  eighty  million,  covering  a  vast  territory, 
without  a  government.  They  had  never  been  taught  to  govern 
themselves.  They  had  no  institutions  of  national  self-govern- 
ment; and  no  people,  no  democracy  can  govern  itself  except 
through  institutions  of  government.  The  hundred  and 
eighty  million  people  of  Russia  were  left  without  a  govern- 
ment by  the  dethronement  of  the  Czar,  and  they  were  left 
without  any  institutions  of  self-government.  They  had, 
moreover,  in  general,  no  knowledge,  no  intimate  and  personal 
knowledge  of  the  methods  and  the  necessities  of  self-govern- 
ment. The  great  body  of  the  people  were  wholly  ignorant 
of  how  to  carry  on  a  national  government  for  themselves. 
They  had  been  accustomed  to  receive  orders  and  to  obey. 


156  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

They  had  no  habits  of  thought  which  would  enable  them,  the 
great  body  of  them,  to  evolve  institutions  through  which  to 
govern.  And  so  this  vast  people  who  had  never  been  per- 
mitted to  speak  or  write  or  think  upon  self-government  were 
left  confused,  bewildered,  gathering  in  little  groups  in  aim- 
less and  endless  discussion. 

Then  came  the  propaganda  of  the  extreme  socialists  and 
anarchists,  of  the  internationals,  the  analogue  in  Russia 
to  the  I.  W.  W.  of  this  country;  the  men  whose  motto  is 
that  the  worst  is  the  best;  the  men  who  seek  to  destroy 
the  industrial  organization  of  the  world,  to  destroy  the 
nationalism  of  the  world  with  a  far-off  dream  in  its  place  of 
a  universal  brotherhood  to  govern  all  the  world  in  har- 
mony and  peace.  These  men  were  aided  by  thousands  who 
had  swarmed  back  to  Russia  from  America,  thousands 
who  returned  vilifying  and  abusing  the  land  that  gave  them 
refuge,  gave  them  security,  gave  them  liberty  to  think  and 
speak  and  act.  These  refugees  returned  to  Russia  declaring 
America  to  be  as  tyrannous  as  the  Czar,  and  calling  for  the 
destruction,  not  for  the  setting-up,  of  competent  government 
in  Russia,  and  for  the  destruction  of  all  governments,  of 
America,  of  England,  of  Prance,  of  Italy,  and  incidentally 
of  Germany.  They  poisoned  the  minds  of  the  working-men, 
and  of  peasants  and  of  soldiers.  Their  definite  and  distinct 
object  was  to  destroy  the  whole  industrial  and  national 
system  of  Russia.  And  they  had  power  in  Petrograd,  for 
there  at  the  beginning  the  garrison  adhered  to  them. 

Into  this  condition  of  vast  confusion  and  bewilderment 
was  thrust  a  great  German  propaganda.  Thousands  of  Ger- 
man agents  swarmed  over  the  line  immediately  upon  the 
coming  of  the  revolution.  They  awakened  all  the  pro- 
Germans  in  Russia.  They  spent  money  like  water.  Millions 
upon  millions  were  used.  They  bought  people;  they  bribed 
people;  they  bought  newspapers;  they  established  news- 


ADDRESS  AT  NEW  YORK  CITY  HALL         157 

papers;  they  circulated  literature;  they  went  to  and  fro 
among  the  troops  at  the  front.  They  said,  "  Why  go  on 
fighting  ?  This  was  the  Czar's  war;  it  was  not  your  war; 
why  go  on  ?  Let  us  have  peace."  The  people  of  Russia, 
the  soldiers  of  Russia,  were  wearied  of  war,  like  all  the  rest 
of  Europe,  and  peace  seemed  so  desirable  to  them  that  for 
the  moment  it  seemed  as  if  this  German  propaganda  had 
captured  Russia,  had  done  what  her  arms  never  could  do,  cap- 
tured Russia.  The  internationals,  the  extremists,  who  were 
preaching  a  great  world  union  of  human  freedom,  made 
common  cause  with  the  bribing  and  insidious  agents  of  the 
German  autocracy  to  overcome  the  freedom  of  Russia. 
Against  these  influences,  in  an  attempt  to  build  up  a  new 
republic,  with  the  enemy  at  their  gates,  and  the  insidious 
influences  sapping  all  their  power,  a  few  men  in  Russia  made 
the  bravest,  noblest,  most  gallant  fight  of  our  time  for  the 
safety  of  human  freedom  and  the  building  up  of  free  self- 
government  in  their  country. 

It  was  the  function  of  this  Mission  not  merely  to  carry  a 
message  of  friendship  and  good  feeling  from  the  United 
States  to  Russia.  As  events  developed  before  we  reached 
Russia,  it  became  the  function  of  this  group  of  American 
citizens  to  carry  to  the  people  of  Russia  a  message  of  faith 
in  democracy;  to  say  to  them,  "  Take  heart,  be  of  good  cheer, 
faint  not,  despair  not.  We  say  to  you  from  the  hundred 
million  free  people  of  America,  who  for  one  hundred  and  forty 
years  have  been  fighting  the  battles  of  democracy,  that  there 
lives  a  power  in  democracy  that  will  overcome  all  evil,  and 
it  is  with  you,  and  with  it  you  will  triumph."  It  was  the 
function  of  this  Mission  to  put  courage  and  hope  into  many 
a  faint  heart,  to  point  out  that  the  way  to  safety  led  through 
the  support,  the  earnest  and  active  support  of  the  existing 
provisional  government  of  Russia;  that  no  oratory,  that 
no  aimless  theorizing  could  answer  the  purpose,  but  that 


158  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

there  must  be  government,  and  that  the  government  they 
had  must  be  supported,  sustained,  promoted,  strengthened,  if 
they  would  be  free.  Little  by  little  that  government,  begin- 
ning with  no  power,  a  government  merely  of  moral  suasion, 
with  no  force  to  execute  a  decree,  gathering  to  itself  the 
forces  of  Russian  thought  and  character,  acquired  the  power, 
gradually  secured  confidence,  secured  the  support  of  the 
garrison  in  Petrograd,  began  to  restore  discipline,  to  restore 
a  consciousness  that  freedom  was  not  that  every  man  should 
do  what  he  pleased,  but  that  freedom  was  order,  freedom 
was  the  reciprocal  limitation  of  individual  liberty.  That 
government,  gathering  slowly  the  forces  of  Russia,  at  last 
came  to  the  point  where  it  was  able  to  lift  up  its  hand  and 
say,  "  The  time  has  come  when  those  who  fight  against  us 
must  take  up  the  sword,  for  they  will  perish  by  the  sword." 
Since  our  departure  from  Petrograd,  processes  that  began 
before  have  been  going  on  along  the  lines  that  were  explained 
to  us  before  we  left  that  country,  and  the  results  that  the 
government  then  had  in  mind  have  been  worked  out  and  are 
manifest  today,  with  Kerensky,  that  man  of  conviction,  of 
intense  purpose,  of  tremendous  personality,  devoted  to  his 
great  cause  to  the  last  drop  of  his  blood.  Kerensky,  who, 
when  we  were  there,  was  agreed  upon  by  the  members  of  the 
government  for  his  present  position,  now  rules  the  destinies 
of  Russia;  and  with  him  in  the  government  are  wise, 
prudent,  sagacious  men  of  affairs. 

I  know  of  no  greater  exhibition  of  competency  in  'construc- 
tive government  than  has  been  given  to  the  world  by  the 
provisional  government  of  Russia  during  the  past  three 
months.  So  we  have  come  back  with  faith  in  Russia,  faith 
in  the  qualities  of  character  that  are  the  essential  tests  of 
competency  for  self-government,  faith  in  the  purpose,  the 
persistency  and  the  power  of  the  Russian  people  to  keep 
themselves  free.  And  they  know  that  they  cannot  be  free, 


ADDRESS  AT  NEW  YORK  CITY  HALL         159 

that  they  cannot  build  up  a  structure  of  government  based 
upon  and  conforming  to  the  life  and  character  and  genius  of 
the  Russian  people,  if  Germany  is  allowed  to  dominate  in 
their  land.  They  know  it  well.  I  do  not  know  what  the  result 
of  military  operations  will  be;  no  man  can  forecast  that;  but 
I  do  know  that  Russia  has  found  herself;  she  has  found  her- 
self, and  on  every  field,  military  and  civil,  she  will  give  a  good 
account  of  herself  to  the  democratic  world;  and  we  need  not 
blush  for  having  extended  our  hand  to  her  in  friendship  and 
brotherhood. 

I  have  said  that  it  was  the  function  of  this  Diplomatic  Mis- 
sion to  take  to  the  Russian  people  a  message  of  faith  in 
democracy.  My  friends,  we  return  to  America  to  repeat  that 
message.  Here,  as  there,  a  German  propaganda  is  seeking  to 
sap  the  strength  of  this  free  democracy.  Here,  as  there,  Ger- 
man money  is  percolating  throughout  the  country,  buying 
men  here  and  buying  men  there,  inspiring  the  press  here  and 
the  press  there,  building  up  a  great  concealed  structure  of  real 
treason.  Here,  as  there,  there  are  weak  sentimentalists  who, 
speaking  for  peace  and  justice  and  harmony  among  men, 
lend  themselves  to  the  support  and  advancement  of  the  most 
terrible  enemy  that  peace  and  justice  and  harmony  and 
humanity  have  had  since  Genghis  Elan  fell.  Here,  as  there, 
there  are  men  who  proclaim  their  patriotism  and  sell  their 
country.  But  here,  as  there,  the  time  is  at  hand  when  the 
power  of  a  democracy,  long-suffering,  indecisive  at  first,  will 
gather  to  a  point;  and  then  when  the  power  of  the  American 
democracy  exerts  itself  against  its  real  enemy  within,  let 
these  men  beware.  No  form  of  law,  no  fiction  of  theory  will 
prevent  the  usages  of  war  being  applied  to  them.  For  a 
hundred  and  forty  years,  as  we  told  the  Russians,  we  have 
been  fighting  the  hard  battles  of  democracy.  Democracy 
has  not  that  power  of  instant  action  which  characterizes 
a  military  autocracy.  Democracy  cannot  command  that 


160  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

united  action,  that  union  of  purpose  and  concert  of  forward 
motion  which  an  autocracy  can  command;  but  democracy 
has  its  reserves  of  power  that  no  autocracy  can  have,  and 
those  reserves  are  here.  They  are  all  about  us.  They  are 
unexhausted.  They  are  ready  to  be  moved  on,  and  they  will 
be  moved. 

We  bring  back  from  Russia  to  you  and  to  all  our  friends  at 
home  an  echo  of  our  message:  have  faith,  be  stout  of  heart, 
be  courageous  and  hopeful;  brush  aside  all  trifling  criticisms 
and  doubts;  believe  in  your  own  power;  do  not  doubt  the 
triumph  of  the  democracy  of  America,  or  the  triumph  of  that 
great  world  movement  of  democracy  —  that  great  movement 
of  the  human  mind  which  is  passing  on  over  the  continents 
to  the  exile  of  autocrats  and  the  universal  triumph  of  govern- 
ment by  the  people,  lifting  up  all  those  who  labor  and  endure 
to  their  inheritance  of  opportunity,  of  justice,  and  of  liberty. 
Do  not  doubt  its  triumph  for  a  moment.  God  in  the  heavens 
has  manifested  His  eternal  purpose,  so  that  the  simplest  may 
read,  that  autocracy's  days  are  doomed,  and  the  triumph,  the 
universal  triumph  of  democracy  approaches;  and  America, 
great  democratic  America,  courageous  and  powerful,  is  still 
to  do  its  mighty  work  in  that  regeneration  of  mankind. 


FAITH  IN  RUSSIA 

ADDRESS  AT  A  RECEPTION  OF  THE   CHAMBER  OF  COMMERCE 

OF  THE  STATE  OF  NEW  YORK,  NEW  YORK  CITY 

AUGUST  15,  1917 


Special  Diplomatic  Mission  to  Russia,  now  in  liqui- 
J.  dation,  was  intentionally  separated  from  any  concern 
with  business,  with  trade,  investment,  or  enterprise  for 
money-making  of  any  kind.  This  was  done  carefully,  and  it 
was  insisted  upon  strenuously  by  the  Mission  itself  in  Russia, 
in  order  that  our  message  to  the  government  and  people  of 
Russia  might  be  free  from  any  suspicion  or  color  of  selfish 
purpose.  Yet  I  wish  to  say  a  few  words  to  you  about  the 
substantial  elements  in  Russian  life  and  Russian  conditions 
which  should  enter  into  a  judgment,  on  your  part,  as  to  the 
confidence  to  which  Russia  is  entitled. 

I  have  just  been  talking  in  the  City  Hall  about  the  condi- 
tions in  which  Russia  found  herself  when  the  government  of 
the  Czar  was  ended  —  and  I  need  not  repeat  what  I  said 
there.  The  extraordinary  ease  with  which  the  Czar's  govern- 
ment was  removed,  was  due  not  merely  to  the  fact  that  it  was 
an  autocracy,  but  also  to  the  fact  that  it  did  not  govern  effi- 
ciently; it  was  not  up  to  the  job;  it  had  allowed  Russia  to 
drift  into  a  position  where  there  was  vast  confusion  and  the 
country  was  on  the  verge  of  bankruptcy.  The  government 
had  become,  practically,  merely  a  government  of  suppression, 
a  government  of  negatives  that  ceased  to  lead  the  people,  so 
that  the  Czar  and  the  bureaucracy  were  slipped  off  as  easily 
as  a  crab  sheds  its  hard  shell  when  the  proper  time  comes. 

And  then  Russia  was  left  without  a  government.  The  laws 
which  had  their  virtue  from  the  command  of  the  Czar  seemed 
to  have  lost  their  sanction  and  moral  force;  the  police  disap- 

161 


162  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

peared;  they  were  chased  out,  and  those  that  were  not  dis- 
posed of  in  that  way  speedily  became  invisible.  The  Duma, 
in  its  last  act,  appointed  a  provisional  government  —  that  is, 
it  appointed  a  number  of  gentlemen  to  fill  the  places  of 
the  heads  of  the  executive  departments  —  but  that  govern- 
ment had  no  power.  It  took  up  the  machinery  of  adminis- 
tration, but  it  had  no  power  to  enforce  a  decree.  The  soldiers 
of  Petrograd,  who  had  been  the  physical  force  of  the  revolu- 
tion, deferred  to  a  voluntary  organization  of  deputies  of 
working-men  and  soldiers,  who  met  in  Petrograd,  twenty-five 
hundred  of  them,  and  discussed  and  passed  resolutions.  The 
soldiers  were  with  them,  and  the  provisional  government, 
while  carrying  on  the  machinery  of  administration,  had  no 
power  to  enforce  a  decree,  and  anybody  in  Russia  was 
practically  free  to  do  anything  he  chose.  Russia  was  under 
the  control  of  thousands  of  local  committees  all  over  that 
vast  land,  without  any  relation  to  each  other,  and  without 
any  subordination  to  the  machinery  of  the  government  in 
Petrograd.  Now,  not  only  was  this  acephalous  condition 
created,  but  the  people  had  never  been  thinking  about  the 
machinery  of  government,  they  had  no.  institutions  through 
which  to  carry  on  self-government.  They  had  no  habit  of 
thought  which  would  enable  them  to  create  institutions 
readily  for  national  government.  They  were  dazed,  con- 
fused, bewildered.  Up  to  the  revolution  it  had  been  a  crimi- 
nal offense  to  hold  meetings  and  discuss  public  questions. 
Under  the  rulings  of  the  police  three  was  an  unlawful  crowd, 
so  that  if  three  men  undertook  to  talk  about  the  weather  in 
the  street,  they  were  required  to  move  on  or  were  arrested. 
Immediately  after  the  revolution  all  Russia  began  to  meet 
and  discuss.  That  was  the  condition  when  the  Mission 
reached  there. 

Now,  into  that  state  of  affairs  there  came  intervention  by 
that  malevolent  power  which  is  intermeddling  with  the 


FAITH  IN  RUSSIA  163 

affairs  of  every  nation  upon  earth,  stirring  up  discord,  stimu- 
lating, feeding,  financing  all  the  forces  of  evil  —  doing  it  here 
among  us  now.  That  power  that  finds  its  account  in  alliance 
with  all  evil  passions,  all  the  sordid  impulses  of  humanity  in 
every  nation  in  the  world,  entered  into  Russia.  Thousands 
of  its  agents  poured  over  the  border  immediately  upon  the 
revolution.  All  the  pro-German  sympathizers  in  Russia 
were  visited  and  spurred  to  action.  Newspapers  were  pur- 
chased, and  newspapers  were  established,  literature  was  dis- 
tributed, and  a  great  propaganda  went  on  to  fill  the  minds  of 
the  simple-minded  people,  who  had  never  thought  or  talked 
about  political  affairs,  to  fill  their  minds  with  the  German 
view  of  the  war  and  their  duty.  The  men  who  correspond  to 
the  I.  W.  W.  here,  the  extreme  socialists  and  anarchists,  with 
whom  the  German  agents  made  common  cause,  preached  and 
sought  to  bring  about  the  destruction  of  the  industrial  and 
financial  system  in  Russia,  the  destruction  of  nationalism  in 
Russia,  under  the  promise  to  the  peasants  and  the  working- 
men  of  a  universal  brotherhood  of  the  proletariat  of  the 
world,  which  should  destroy  all  national  government,  and 
bring  in  a  universal  reign  of  peace  and  brotherly  love,  not 
suggesting  to  them  what  Germany  might  do  in  the  mean- 
time if  the  national  force  of  Russia  was  destroyed  for  the 
purpose  of  bringing  about  the  millennium. 

Notwithstanding  all  this,  in  a  country  with  no  central 
government  that  had  power  to  enforce  its  decrees,  in  a  coun- 
try with  no  police,  a  country  in  which  the  sanction  and  moral 
obligation  of  the  laws  had  disappeared  with  the  disappear- 
ance of  the  Czar,  there  reigned  order  to  a  higher  degree  than 
has  existed  in  the  United  States  of  America  during  this 
period. 

In  the  first  enthusiasm  for  freedom  and  in  the  liberation  of 
political  prisoners,  a  great  many  ordinary  criminal  prisoners 
were  also  released,  and  they  went  about  and  committed  some 


164  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

depredations  which  of  course  all  found  their  way  into  the 
newspapers;  but  even  with  that,  the  general  average  of  peace 
and  order,  of  respect  for  property  and  life  in  Russia,  was 
higher  than  could  reasonably  be  expected  from  any  hundred 
and  eighty  million  people  in  the  world  under  any  gov- 
ernment. 

Now,  that  extraordinary  phenomenon  called  for  a  study,  a 
careful  study,  not  merely  from  the  newspapers  or  from  talk- 
ing with  government  officials,  but  by  countless  serious  inter- 
views and  conversations  with  men  of  all  grades  and  stripes 
and  callings  and  conditions  of  life;  and  these  studies  satisfied 
all  the  members  of  this  Mission  that  the  Russian  people  pos- 
sessed, to  a  very  high  degree,  qualities  that  are  necessary  for 
successful  self-government.  They  have  self-control  equalled 
in  few  countries  of  the  world.  They  have  persistency  of 
purpose;  they  have  a  most  kindly  and  ingrained  respect  — 
not  only  respect,  regard  —  for  the  rights  of  others.  They 
will  not  willingly  do  an  injustice  to  any  one,  and  that 
sense  of  justice  carries  with  it  a  broad  charity.  They  have  a 
noble  idealism  which  is  developed  and  exhibited  in  the  minds 
that  are  enlarged  by  education,  and  they  have  a  strong  sense 
of  the  mission  of  liberty  in  the  world,  and  they  have  an  ex- 
traordinary capacity  for  concerted  action.  That  is  shown  in 
their  self-government  in  the  village  community  in  which  their 
little  affairs  are  dealt  with  in  the  most  every-day  method 
of  discussion  —  agreement  —  subordination  of  individual 
views  to  the  general  opinion;  in  the  zemstvos  which  take 
in  a  little  larger  scope;  in  the  town  councils  and  in  the 
union  during  the  war  of  these  local  agencies  for  general 
purposes,  the  union  of  zemstvos  and  the  union  of  the  war 
munition  committees,  which  are  all  working  together  most 
successfully  and  practically.  There  you  see  the  union  of 
citizens  for  political  purposes  which  comes  very  close  to  gov- 
ernment. So  we  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Russian 


FAITH  IN  RUSSIA  165 

people  have,  in  a  very  high  degree,  the  qualities  necessary  to 
create  and  maintain  a  successful  free  government. 

That  is  the  test.  There  can  be  no  more  fatal  gift  to  a 
people  than  the  duty  of  self-government  when  their  charac- 
ters are  not  equal  to  the  performance  of  the  duty.  The  ques- 
tion of  a  people's  maintaining  their  freedom  is  not  to  be  de- 
termined by  the  little  spectacular  incidents  which  are  picked 
up  and  published  with  headlines  in  the  newspapers.  The 
question  is  to  be  determined  by  the  underlying  and  real  char- 
acter of  the  people.  If  their  character  is  right,  against  all 
enemies  and  all  misfortunes  they  will  win  through  to  estab- 
lished freedom.  If  their  character  is  unequal  to  the  task,  all 
the  aid  of  all  the  great  countries  in  the  world  cannot  give 
them  their  freedom.  Freedom  must  find  its  foundation,  its 
sure  foundation,  within  the  people  themselves,  and  we  think 
the  Russians  have  that  sure  foundation. 

Now  there  is  great  financial  difficulty  in  Russia;  the  old 
regime  brought  the  country  into  a  very  involved  and  critical 
condition  financially;  and  there  is  great  disturbance  indus- 
trially. But  when  I  have  met  people,  and  I  have,  a  great 
many,  who  shake  their  heads  over  the  industrial  and  financial 
conditions  there,  I  have  thought  always,  with  a  cheerful 
reassurance,  of  what  a  character  these  people  have,  and  I 
have  remembered  that  our  dollar  in  the  Civil  War  was  as  low 
as  the  Russian  rouble,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  character 
of  the  Russians  will  pull  up  their  finances  just  as  the  charac- 
ter of  Americans  pulled  up  our  finances. 

I  remembered,  also,  that  in  a  country  where  eighty-five 
per  cent  of  the  people  are  land-owning  peasants,  industrial 
and  financial  difficulties  do  not  cut  so  deep  as  they  do  in  a 
country  which  is  chiefly  industrial  in  the  ordinary  sense  of 
the  word.  There  is  no  such  convulsion  caused  by  troubles 
which  affect  only  fifteen  per  cent  of  the  people,  as  where  there 
are  troubles  which  affect  the  whole;  that  is,  the  more  highly 


166  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

organized,  industrially  and  financially,  a  country  is,  the 
greater  ruin  brought  by  industrial  and  financial  difficulties. 
With  Russia,  all  financial  trouble  that  there  is  or  may  be, 
passing  over  the  heads  of  eighty-five  per  cent  of  the  people, 
affects  them  little. 

A  schedule,  an  appraisement  of  the  property  of  Russia  — 
that  is,  the  available  property  which  could  be  used  for  the 
production  of  income,  or  sold  for  productive  purposes — has 
just  been  made;  it  has  been  made  under  the  direction  of 
Mr.  Pakrovsky,  former  minister  of  finance  under  the  Czar's 
government,  a  gentleman  whose  ability  and  integrity  are 
most  highly  respected,  and  while  it  is  not  completed  in 
detail,  he  finds  that  a  moderate  appraisement  of  that  prop- 
erty, appraised  just  as  you  would  appraise  the  property  of 
any  corporation,  exceeds  over  sixty  billion  dollars.  So  you 
have  a  background  against  which  to  consider  Russia  —  this 
vast  property,  the  value  of  which  of  course  depends  upon  the 
maintenance  of  a  stable  government,  protecting  property 
rights,  and  for  the  existence  of  such  a  government  you  have 
the  true  character  of  the  Russian  people  and  their  respect  for 
property  rights.  You  have  that  vast  country  to  be  opened, 
to  be  developed,  the  great  stretch  through  Siberia,  from  the 
Urals  to  the  Pacific,  with  unimaginable  wealth  of  the  same 
kind  which  has  made  the  power  of  our  great  republic.  You 
have  the  wealth,  you  have  the  character,  you  have  the  oppor- 
tunity for  development,  and  with  these,  I  feel  certain  that 
Russia  is  going  to  create  and  maintain  a  free  self-government 
which  will  make  her  a  republic  worthy  to  stand  side  by  side 
with  the  great  republic  of  the  United  States,  and  a  republic 
which  will  spur  us  to  higher  effort  in  order  that  we  may  be 
worthy  to  stand  with  her. 

There  is  but  one  danger  I  see,  and  that  is  that  Russia, 
God  forbid  it,  may  be  overwhelmed  by  Germany;  and  if  that 
were  to  happen,  the  development  of  the  free  institutions  in 


FAITH  IN  RUSSIA  167 

Russia,  adapted  to  her  life  and  character  and  the  genius  of 
the  Russian  people,  would  be  made  impossible.  The  Rus- 
sians know  that  —  the  thoughtful  men  of  Russia  know  that 
—  and,  with  courage  worthy  of  all  honor,  with  courage 
worthy  of  imitation  by  us,  they  are  wrestling  mightily  to 
prevent  that  great  misfortune.  No  one  can  tell  what  the 
outcome  will  be,  but  this  is  certain,  that  Russia,  tired  of  the 
war,  worn  and  harried  by  war;  Russia,  which  has  lost  seven 
millions  of  her  sons,  with  every  village  in  mourning,  every 
family  bereaved;  Russia  has  again  taken  up  the  heavy  bur- 
den; she  has  to  a  great  extent  restored  the  discipline  of  her 
army;  she  has  put  away  the  bright  vision  of  peace  and  rest, 
and  returned  yet  again  to  the  sacrifice  and  the  suffering  of 
war  in  order  that  she  may  continue  free.  Ah!  If  we  love 
freedom,  if  we  are  true  children  of  our  fathers,  and  cherish 
their  ideals,  confidence  and  hope  will  go  out  from  us  to  those 
brave  Russians  who  are  fighting  our  battles  as  they  are  fight- 
ing their  own;  and  we  will  uphold  the  hands  of  our  Govern- 
ment and  encourage  the  spirit  of  our  people  to  do  our  duty 
beyond  measure,  to  help  them  in  their  great  and  noble  work. 


SYMPATHY  WITH  RUSSIA 

ADDRESS  AT  THE  BANQUET  OF  THE  AMERICAN  BAR 
ASSOCIATION,  SARATOGA  SPRINGS,  NEW  YORK 
SEPTEMBER  7,  1917 

At  the  conclusion  of  its  Saratoga  session,  the  American  Bar  Association  tendered 
a  banquet  to  Mr.  Root,  at  which  the  toastmaster,  ex-Senator  George  Sutherland  of 
Utah,  the  president  of  the  Association,  introduced  Mr.  Root  in  the  following  words: 
The  American  Bar  Association,  departing  from  its  usual  custom,  has  given 
this  dinner  in  honor  of  its  most  distinguished  member,  a  lawyer  of  profound 
learning  and  great  ability,  schooled  in  the  best  traditions  of  a  noble  profession. 
It  has  been  my  good  fortune  to  know,  more  or  less  intimately,  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  public  men  of  my  generation,  and  to  be  reasonably  familiar 
with  the  history  of  the  others,  and  I  take  advantage  of  this  occasion  to  say — 
not  by  way  of  idle  compliment,  but  as  a  matter  of  profound  conviction — that 
this  great  American  whom  we  thus  honor  will  pass  into  the  history  of  his 
country  as  the  safest  counsellor  and  wisest  statesman  of  his  time. 

I  present  with  pleasure — I  present  with  very  real  and  great  affection,  our 
distinguished  guest  and  former  president,  Elihu  Root. 

IT  is  very  hard  to  speak  after  such  an  introduction.  It  is 
hard  to  forget  the  sense  of  unworthiness  caused  by  such 
words  as  the  too  partial  friendship  of  Senator  Sutherland  has 
permitted  him  to  use:  but  who  could  remain  silent  who  has  a 
voice  in  these  days  ?  Who  can  think  of  his  own  personality 
amid  the  tremendous  issues  that  confront  us  and  the  ter- 
rible responsibility  that  rests  upon  us  ?  Men  are  nothing. 
From  out  of  the  dead  level  of  ordinary  humdrum  life,  from 
ease  and  comfort,  the  struggle  for  place  and  fortune,  the 
common  things  of  every  day,  the  rising  feeling  of  duties  and 
ideals  and  devotion  sinks  all  personality. 

There  are  no  persons  now;  there  is  only  a  country.  There 
are  no  countries  now:  there  is  only  a  world  in  which  the 
great  conflict  has  come  between  right  and  wrong,  between 
the  angels  of  light  and  the  angels  of  darkness;  and  we  are, 

169 


170  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

each  one  of  us,  but  an  indistinguishable  particle  in  the  great 
conflict  that  is  to  determine  the  future  of  mankind. 

I  promised  some  of  my  friends,  in  response  to  their  ques- 
tioning, that  I  would  tell  you  something  tonight  about 
Russia.  I  can  do  it  only  because  it  is  a  part  of  the  great 
drama  of  intense  interest  that  has  turned  this  meeting  of  the 
American  Bar  Association  from  a  conference  over  dry  laws 
and  technical  and  scientific  questions  into  a  great  patriotic 
meeting. 

Let  me  say  something  about  Russia,  poor,  harried,  bleed- 
ing, agonizing  Russia.  In  March  last,  the  government  of  the 
Czar  had  brought  Russia  to  the  verge  of  bankruptcy.  The 
Czar  was  dethroned,  not  merely  because  he  was  an  autocrat 
—  that  would  have  waited  until  the  war  was  over  —  but 
because  his  government  was  incompetent  and  dishonest; 
because  the  men  who  were  controlling  in  that  government 
were  bought  with  German  money  and  were  traitors  to  their 
country,  to  the  great  cause  in  which  Russia  had  enlisted. 

The  Duma  was  in  session,  and  wise  and  able  men  in  that 
body  perceived  that  the  bureaucratic  government  was 
making  its  arrangements  for  a  separate  peace,  in  violation  of 
the  pledged  faith  of  Russia;  a  peace  which  would  have 
inflicted  intolerable  shame  upon  their  country  through 
desertion  of  those  other  nations  who  had  come  to  the  aid  of 
Russia  in  her  struggle.  Wise  and  able  men  there  charged  the 
government  with  the  purpose  to  make  a  separate  peace.  The 
Czar  issued  an  order  that  the  Duma  dissolve,  and  the  Duma 
refused  to  dissolve,  and  that  precipitated  the  revolution. 

Upon  that,  the  great  body  of  socialists  in  Petrograd  who 
had  been  attacking  the  government,  had  been  forming  their 
plans  ultimately  to  overthrow  the  government,  arose,  took  to 
the  street,  called  upon  the  Petrograd  garrison  whom  they  had 
won  over  to  their  views,  and  drove  out  the  police  of  the 
bureaucracy.  The  agents  of  the  Duma  called  upon  the  Czar 


SYMPATHY  WITH  RUSSIA  171 

for  his  abdication;  and  he  abdicated.  The  Duma  imme- 
diately appointed  new  heads  of  all  the  departments,  who  took 
possession  of  the  machinery  of  government.  The  socialists 
formed  themselves  into  a  body  which  was  known  as  the 
Council  of  Deputies  of  Workingmen  and  Soldiers,  some 
twenty-five  hundred  in  number,  and  they  had  adhering  to 
them  the  Petrograd  garrison.  And  then,  with  the  Czar's 
government  disposed  of,  disappearing  in  a  night,  there  were 
left  in  Russia  the  heads  of  the  executive  department  who 
controlled  the  machinery  of  administration,  and  the  Council 
of  Deputies  of  Workingmen  and  Soldiers,  who  had  the  con- 
trol and  leadership  of  the  Petrograd  garrison,  that  is  to  say, 
the  physical  force,  in  their  control.  The  provisional  Council 
of  Ministers  appointed  by  the  Duma  had  the  machinery  of 
government,  but  they  had  no  power  to  execute  their  decrees. 
The  Council  of  Deputies  of  Workingmen  and  Soldiers,  a 
purely  voluntary  body,  had  the  physical  power  as  they  had 
the  garrison  with  them,  but  they  had  no  competence  for 
government,  and  they  did  not  undertake  to  carry  on  govern- 
ment; and  so  the  country  stood  with  no  effective  govern- 
ment, a  government  of  moral  suasion  alone;  and  that  vast 
people  of  one  hundred  and  eighty  million,  covering  one-sixth 
of  the  habitable  globe,  looked  about  in  bewilderment  and  con- 
fusion, and  began  to  discuss  their  rights,  their  powers  and 
duties;  began  to  rejoice  in  the  new  freedom  from  oppression. 
Four  months  ago,  when  the  Diplomatic  Mission  from  the 
United  States  landed  at  Vladivostock,  there  were  thousands 
of  committees  which  had  been  formed  in  every  town  and  in 
every  city,  and  almost  every  village,  in  every  garrison  and 
camp  and  division  and  regiment  of  the  great  Russian  army. 
These  thousands  of  committees  undertook  to  regulate  their 
local  affairs.  They  had  no  relation  to  each  other,  and  they 
had  no  subordination  to  any  general  government.  Seventy- 
five  per  cent  of  the  people  could  not  read  and  write.  With  a 


172  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

very  few  exceptions,  they  had  no  knowledge  and  no  experi- 
ence in  self-government.  They  had  no  institutions  through 
which  to  govern,  and  we  all  know  there  can  be  no  self- 
government  except  through  institutions  of  government.  Yet 
in  that  extraordinary  condition  there  was  as  perfect  order  in 
Russia  as  existed  in  the  United  States. 

In  Petrograd  not  a  policeman  was  to  be  found;  the  old 
police  of  the  bureaucracy  had  been  chased  away,  gone  into 
hiding,  or  into  exile;  and  no  police  had  taken  their  place. 
But  there  was  no  time  during  that  period  when  a  young 
woman  could  not  have  walked  from  one  end  of  Petrograd  to 
the  other  at  any  hour  of  the  day  or  night  in  perfect  safety. 

Then  they  addressed  themselves  to  the  novel  subject  of 
forming  a  government  to  take  the  place  of  the  old  autocracy. 
There  were  two  elements,  the  socialists,  who,  of  course, 
desired  a  government  of  socialism,  and  the  great  body  of  the 
Russian  people,  most  of  them  land-owning  peasants,  with  a 
small  proportion  of  business  men  and  a  small  proportion  of 
large  land-owners;  and  these  two  elements  stood  and  looked 
at  each  other  in  doubt  as  to  what  they  should  do,  wholly 
inexperienced;  and  they  began  to  take  the  first  steps  towards 
the  creation  of  government. 

The  socialists  had  two  wings  —  the  moderate  and  reason- 
able socialists  of  the  American  type,  the  same  kind  who  run  a 
candidate  for  President  every  four  years  now,  with  cheerful 
hope;  and  the  extreme  socialists  of  the  German  type,  who 
demanded  immediate  and  full  application  of  the  theory  of 
socialism.  They  proposed  that  there  should  be  an  immediate 
destruction  of  all  capital.  They  proposed  to  destroy  the 
industrial  organization  of  Russia;  and  they  proposed  to 
destroy  the  nationalism  of  Russia  in  the  expectation  of  sub- 
stituting for  nationalism  throughout  the  world  the  "  Uni- 
versal Brotherhood  of  the  Proletariat "  which  should  imme- 
diately usher  in  the  millenium.  Their  idea  was  that  they 


SYMPATHY  WITH  RUSSIA  173 

would  have  no  national  government  in  Russia,  and  they 
would  immediately  destroy  the  national  governments  of  the 
United  States,  Great  Britain,  France,  Italy,  and  incidentally 
Germany.  The  key  of  all  that  went  on  in  Russia  through 
months  was  the  desire  to  separate  the  modern  and  reasonable 
socialists,  who  sought  to  obtain  the  fruition  of  their  theories 
through  building  up  national  democracies,  from  the  extreme 
German  type  of  socialists  who  sought  immediately  to  apply 
their  wild  and  vague  theory. 

Then  there  came  a  tremendous  German  propaganda. 
Thousands  of  German  agents  came  across  the  border  after 
the  revolution;  and  they  spent  money  like  water,  no  one  can 
tell  how  much  they  spent.  They  stirred  up  all  the  German 
sympathizers  in  Russia.  They  purchased  newspapers, 
established  newspapers,  and  printed  other  literature;  they 
went  up  and  down  the  front,  talking  to  the  soldiers  in  the 
trenches  and  in  the  reserve  camps.  They  said  to  the  Russian 
soldier,  "  Why  do  you  fight  ?  This  was  the  Czar's  war.  The 
Czar  is  gone  now.  WTiy  do  you  keep  on  fighting  ?  "  They  said 
also  to  them,  "  WTiy  do  you  kill  us  ?  We  are  your  friends. 
Why  do  you  want  to  get  killed  yourselves  ?  It  is  very 
unpleasant.  You  had  better  go  home  and  take  part  in  the 
division  of  the  land.  All  the  land  in  Russia  is  to  be  divided, 
and  if  you  do  not  hurry  home,  you  will  be  left."  And  those 
millions  of  men  who  did  not  read  were  talked  to  in  this  way, 
and  when  it  was  said,  this  was  not  their  war,  they  were  com- 
pelled to  realize  that  it  was  not.  Nobody  had  told  them  what 
the  war  was  about;  they  had  never  been  instructed  about  it; 
they  had  no  knowledge  of  the  great  issues  involved;  and 
accordingly,  by  the  millions,  the  Russians  left  the  trenches 
and  the  camps  and  wandered  all  over  the  country,  finding 
their  way  back  to  their  homes;  and  all  through  the  Russian 
army  the  idea  ran  that  peace  had  come,  and  there  was  no 
further  occasion  for  war.  And  so  that  government  stood 


174  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

without  any  power  in  the  government  to  enforce  a  decree, 
with  an  army  wearied  of  war,  as  all  Europe  is  wearied  of  war 
today,  tired  of  sacrifice  and  suffering,  glad  to  have  the  killing 
and  maiming  come  to  an  end;  glad  that  no  more  lives  were 
to  be  added  to  the  millions  who  had  been  lost  in  Russia; 
and  that  peace  and  order  were  to  reign. 

Discipline  in  the  army,  of  course,  then  disappeared.  The 
officers  who  had  been  severe  in  their  treatment  of  the  soldiers 
were  dismissed  and  sent  away,  the  soldiers'  committees  took 
charge,  and  with  Germany  at  the  gates  a  condition  existed 
in  which  the  successful  prosecution  of  war  was  impossible. 
There  was  no  government  which  had  the  power  to  enforce 
law.  Indeed,  the  law  had  lost  its  sanction  as  law;  it  had 
died  with  the  Czar.  It  was  not  like  our  law,  which  is  made 
by  the  people  —  it  was  made  by  the  Czar,  and  the  Czar  had 
gone,  and  his  word  had  no  further  authority.  There  was  no 
law,  no  power.  The  great  body  of  the  people,  with  little  or  no 
understanding  of  the  great  questions  confronting  them, 
delighted  in  the  sense  of  freedom;  but  they  respected  each 
other's  rights,  and  they  maintained  order.  The  German 
agents  made  common  cause  with  the  extreme  and  unrea- 
sonable socialists,  and  to  them  were  added  those  unknown 
secret  agents  of  the  bureaucratic  government.  And  the 
extreme  wing  of  violent  destructive  socialism,  which  corre- 
sponds to  the  I.  W.  W.  in  our  own  country,  and  the  agents  of 
the  old  secret  police  and  the  agents  of  Germany,  made  com- 
mon cause  in  attempting  to  destroy  all  industry,  all  property, 
all  capital  and  all  effectiveness  of  government  in  Russia. 

Now,  in  that  condition  a  few  men  —  very  few  at  first  — 
stood  up  and  spurned  the  offer  of  a  separate  peace  from  Ger- 
many. They  said,  "We  will  not  stain  our  country  by  this 
disgraceful  conduct.  We  will  maintain  the  war;  we  will 
fight  for  the  liberty  which  we  have  newly  won;  we  will  begin 
the  career  of  a  new  democracy  of  Russia,  with  faith  and 


SYMPATHY  WITH  RUSSIA  175 

honor.  We  will  save  the  people  of  Russia  from  the  disgrace 
which  these  men  seek  to  put  upon  it." 

They  were  the  provisional  government  of  Russia.  Wisely, 
patiently,  they  separated  the  reasonable  socialists  from  the 
extremists.  They  finally  won  them  over,  and  when  they 
had  won  them  over,  they  had  won  the  Petrograd  garrison 
also.  And  when  they  had  won  the  Petrograd  garrison,  with 
the  moderate  socialists,  they  were  ready  to  govern. 

I  got  up  one  morning  in  the  quarters  of  the  Diplomatic 
Mission,  in  the  Winter  Palace.  We  had  on  one  side  of  us, 
occupying  a  part  of  that  vast  pile,  a  great  military  hospital 
filled  with  wounded.  On  the  other  side,  in  the  rooms  which 
had  been  used  as  a  prison  for  the  palace,  there  were  confined 
some  eighty  anarchists  who  had  just  been  arrested  the  night 
before.  Across  the  way  were  the  barracks  of  the  most 
mutinous  regiment  of  the  Petrograd  garrison.  I  looked  out 
of  the  window  into  the  court-yard  of  the  palace,  and  there  I 
saw  the  court-yard  filled  with  Cossacks,  who  were  standing 
and  sitting  about,  sharpening  their  swords,  and  I  said,  "  The 
time  has  come  when  the  government  of  Russia  can  begin  to 
govern."  And  it  had.  The  Cossacks  went  out  into  the 
streets  of  Petrograd,  and  from  that  time  on  the  flag  of 
destructive  revolutionism,  the  black  flag  of  the  men  who 
sought  to  destroy  Russia,  has  been  driven  from  those  streets. 

Many  disturbing  things  have  been  reported  in  our  news- 
papers of  events  in  Russia,  happening  during  the  past  two 
months.  But  the  changes  in  the  government  of  Russia  which 
took  place  after  our  Mission  left,  until  its  return  home,  were 
the  changes  which  were  marked  out,  and  explained  to  me, 
before  we  left.  What  will  happen  in  the  future,  of  course, 
no  one  can  tell. 

What  was  represented  as  being  another  revolution,  what 
was  represented  as  being  the  surrender  of  the  government  to 
turbulent  forces,  was  but  the  accomplishment  of  a  settled 


176  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

purpose  long  ago  determined  upon  and  explained  to  me  before 
we  left  —  the  purpose  to  put  Kerensky  in  the  place  he  now 
holds,  with  the  power  to  restore  order. 

Through  his  extraordinary  power  —  and  he  has  extraor- 
dinary power,  this  young  man  in  the  thirties,  with  amazing 
intensity,  with  power  to  put  every  drop  of  blood  in  his  body 
into  his  words  when  he  reaches  out  and  seizes  upon  the  souls 
of  his  audience,  and  with  a  devotion  to  his  country,  a  flaming 
enthusiasm  for  liberty  and  order  never  surpassed  hi  our 
day  —  Kerensky  set  out  upon  the  tremendous  task  of  res- 
toring at  once  the  power  of  a  civil  government  to  maintain 
order  in  Russia  and  restore  the  morale  of  the  Russian  army. 

He  has  wise  and  skillful  and  able  men  with  him,  men  who 
joined  in  putting  him  at  the  head  of  the  government,  not 
seeking  their  own  elevation,  not  seeking  their  own  aggran- 
dizement, but  seeking  to  put  at  the  head  of  the  government 
the  man  whom  they  recognized  as  the  most  fit  man  to  do  the 
great  work  that  had  to  be  done. 

He  has,  in  a  great  measure,  restored  the  morale  of  Russia's 
army,  and  that  army  which  from  the  Baltic  to  the  Black  Sea 
had  agreed  that  there  was  no  more  fighting  to  do,  is  now 
fighting  along  that  line,  and  is  now  dying  in  the  trenches 
along  that  line.  Ninety-five  per  cent  of  them  have  gone  back 
to  the  terrible  task  of  maintaining  the  integrity  of  their 
country  against  the  advance  of  the  Germans. 

Here  and  there  is  a  soft  spot,  here  and  there  is  a  place  where 
German  corruption  and  German  influence  have  won  over  an 
officer  or  a  regiment,  and  when  that  soft  spot  is  touched  — 
and  the  Germans  know  where  it  is  —  there  is  a  disaster,  but 
still  they  fight  on. 

The  newspapers  are  filled  with  accounts  of  disputes,  of 
political  conflict,  but  how  is  it  possible  for  a  nation  which 
began  in  the  beginning  with  no  government  at  all,  with  no 
institutions,  with  no  habits  of  thought  or  action  adapted  to 


SYMPATHY  WITH  RUSSIA  177 

the  exercise  of  the  powers  of  government,  how  is  it  possible 
for  them  to  avoid  disputes  and  controversies  ?  When  you 
read  in  the  newspapers  about  what  happens  in  Russia,  I  beg 
you  to  remember  how  the  people  of  Europe  looked  upon  the 
condition  of  America  for  many  a  long  year  after  the  peace 
that  ended  the  American  Revolution.  How  certain  they 
were  that  the  new  experiment  in  democracy  was  a  failure. 
How  they  sneered  and  laughed  at  the  presumptuous  farm- 
ers who  sought  to  govern  themselves.  I  beg  you  to  remember 
what  Europe  thought  of  the  condition  in  America  in  those 
long  dark  years  of  civil  war,  when  it  was  believed  that  the 
American  experiment  had  failed  at  last. 

I  beg  you  to  consider  if  a  true  statement  were  made  and 
communicated  by  cable  to  Russia,  of  all  that  has  been 
happening  in  these  United  States  during  the  past  four 
months,  of  the  riots,  of  the  pacifist  meetings,  of  the  seditious 
press,  of  the  unblushing  effrontery  of  treason  throughout 
this  land,  what  effect  that  would  have  upon  Russia.  I  beg 
you  to  consider  whether  if  that  were  sent  over  to  Russia, 
it  would  not  seem  worse  to  the  Russians  than  the  story 
which  comes  to  us  from  Russia  today. 

A  terrible  task  they  have  undertaken.  Often  their  hearts 
must  faint;  often  it  must  seem  as  if  they  were  fighting  to 
accomplish  the  impossible;  but  they  have  one  thing  upon 
which  they  can  rely,  that  is  the  character  of  the  people  of 
Russia.  Why  was  it  that  when  no  police  and  no  government 
was  there,  order  was  maintained  in  Russia  ?  It  was  because 
the  Russian  people  have  in  the  highest  degree  the  qualities 
that  are  necessary  to  successful  self-government. 

They  have  self-control.  They  are  naturally  law-abiding. 
They  have  natural  consideration  for  the  feelings  and  the 
interests  of  others.  They  have  a  natural  sense  of  justice. 
They  would  not  willingly  do  injustice  to  anyone  in  the  world; 
and  their  justice  is  enlarged  and  ennobled  by  beautiful 


178  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

charity.  They  are  the  kindest  people  towards  the  unfortu- 
nate and  the  erring  that  I  know  of.  With  all  that,  they  have 
persistence  and  rugged  continuance  of  purpose,  and  they 
have  an  extraordinary  capacity  for  concerted  action  which 
has  been  shown  in  their  local  self-government.  In  their  vil- 
lage communities  they  long  have  managed  then'  own  affairs 
in  their  little  town  meetings  with  the  mayor  presiding,  where 
they  would  discuss  and  take  the  will  of  the  majority,  and 
everybody  agreed  to  it.  They  have  done  the  same  in  their 
zemstvos,  and  they  have  gone  further.  This  war  was  not  well 
carried  on  by  the  old  regime,  and  in  order  to  carry  it  on,  the 
Russian  people  rose  and  formed  combinations  of  their  own 
zemstvos  into  an  all-Russian  union  of  zemstvos.  They 
formed  special  war  munition  committees;  and  it  was  these 
bodies  of  zemstvos  and  the  war  munitions  committees  that 
kept  the  armies  going  after  the  old  Russian  regime  had  been 
swept  aside.  Thus  they  have  carried  their  self-government 
into  the  national  field  until  they  have  attained  a  condition 
which  approaches  national  self-government.  In  their  busi- 
ness affairs  they  show  self-government.  I  went  in  Moscow, 
to  the  Narodny  Bank,  or  the  People's  Bank,  and  saw  the 
corporation  employees  gathered  together,  and  speeches  were 
made  to  and  fro,  and  among  others,  a  young  man  arose  and 
said  he  would  like  to  tell  about  the  flax  industry  in  Russia. 
He  said  that  the  flax  people,  great  numbers  of  them,  had 
united  and  formed  a  union  for  the  purpose  of  marketing  their 
flax  and  purchasing  their  necessary  supplies,  and  they  had 
succeeded  in  that,  and  they  were  carrying  on  their  business, 
by  the  agencies  that  they  created  at  a  cost  not  exceeding  two 
and  a  half  per  cent.  Now,  probably  the  majority  of  them 
were  unable  to  read  and  write.  Those  people,  those  peasants, 
with  those  qualities,  are  competent  to  create  and  maintain  a 
self-government.  That  is  the  test.  If  people  have  the 
character  of  a  self-governing  people,  they  will  win  out  in 


SYMPATHY  WITH  RUSSIA  179 

self-government.  If  they  have  not  that  character  of  self- 
government,  then  all  the  powers  on  earth  will  not  make  them 
a  self-governing  people.  Above  all  this  they  have  a  noble 
idealism.  They  are  capable  of  entertaining  conceptions  of 
something  above  the  ordinary  affairs  of  every-day  life.  They 
are  capable  not  merely  of  forming  and  maintaining  self-gov- 
ernment, but  they  are  capable  of  doing  great  things  for  the 
betterment  of  mankind  and  the  advancement  of  liberty. 

To  preserve  the  liberty  of  those  people,  this  little  band  of 
men  striving  to  restore  the  morale  of  the  Russian  army, 
trying  to  teach  those  poor  peasants  in  the  army  who  do  not 
read  and  write,  teach  them  why  they  must  be  ready  to  sacri- 
fice their  lives;  trying  to  show  them  that  their  liberty 
requires  still  further  sacrifices  from  them;  this  little  band  of 
men  agonizing  with  their  fellow-countrymen,  struggling  with 
this  mighty  task,  surely  should  have  the  sympathy  and  the 
aid  of  the  people  of  this  republic,  who  enjoy  freedom  and 
prosperity  and  opportunity  through  the  hard  sacrifices  our 
fathers  made. 

I  am  glad  to  have  gone  to  Russia  because  it  has  put  into 
my  heart  a  sympathy  for  those  struggling  people  which  makes 
me  a  better  man.  This  war  has  done  many  things  already. 
I  know  that  for  one  battered  old  campaigner  who  has  been 
through  the  rude  buffets  of  life  for  half  a  century,  it  has  dis- 
solved that  hardness  of  the  heart  which  brings  indifference 
to  the  dreams  of  youth.  It  has  brought  sympathy,  ennobling 
sympathy,  to  us  all.  Sympathy  for  poor,  struggling,  bleed- 
ing Russia.  Sympathy  for  little  Belgium,  like  a  ravished 
child  trodden  down  by  brutal  and  bestial  force.  Sympathy 
for  the  noble  patriotism  and  lofty  character  of  beautiful 
France.  Sympathy  for  the  patriotism  that  leads  the  Italians 
to  the  mountain  summits  for  the  recovery  of  Italia  Irredenta. 
Sympathy  for  that  great  race  which  through  a  thousand 
years  of  stubborn  and  rugged  individual  independence  has 


180  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

developed  the  liberty  we  now  enjoy.  And  for  the  mild  and 
complacent  surface  kindliness  which  we  once  professed  for 
all  the  world,  there  has  come  a  deep  and  real  sympathy  of  the 
heart  with  all  these  nations  that  have  become  our  allies !  We 
are  growing  real  instead  of  superficial.  We  are  substituting 
reality  for  pretense. 

But  there  is  something  more  than  mere  sympathy  that  this 
war  has  already  brought.  We  have  been  talking  in  this 
country  of  free  lives  and  liberty  and  justice,  of  freedom  and 
opportunity,  of  American  institutions,  of  the  mission  of 
democracy,  about  the  ideals  of  our  fathers,  and  we  have  been 
talking  from  the  teeth  outward.  We  have  not  felt  it.  I  will 
not  say  we  were  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins;  but  we  were 
dead  or  sleeping  in  wealth  and  ease  and  comfort.  The  brutal 
power  of  Germany,  which  has  repudiated  everything  that 
civilization  has  accomplished  for  the  century  past,  which  has 
repudiated  the  law  of  morals  and  declared  the  German  state 
to  be  superior  to  all  morality;  which  has  repudiated  the  law 
of  humanity,  and  has  without  quavering  committed  the 
most  dreadful  outrages  in  order  that  she  might  have  the 
benefit  of  inspiring  terror  in  the  world,  the  brutal  power  of 
Germany  has  revealed  at  last  to  our  comfort-loving  people 
the  unreality  of  our  lives,  and  has  shown,  bare  and  naked,  the 
dreadful,  horrid  truth  of  human  nature  unrelieved  by  morals 
or  religion  or  humanity.  It  has  shown  to  us  as  we  never 
realized  before,  what  liberty  and  justice,  what  humanity  and 
compassion,  what  morality  and  right,  really  are. 

We  need  not  talk  about  the  whys  and  wherefores  of  the 
war.  It  is  here  and  the  issue  is  drawn  so  clearly  that  a  child 
could  see.  It  is  for  the  American  people  to  determine 
whether  they  have  the  manhood  to  maintain  the  liberty  that 
their  fathers  gained  for  them  through  sacrifice;  the  manhood 
to  maintain  the  justice  upon  which  we  have  prided  our- 
selves; the  manhood  to  defend  those  institutions  of  liberty 


SYMPATHY  WITH  RUSSIA  181 

and  justice  which  we  would  hand  down  to  our  children;  or 
whether  we  shall  submit  and  abandon  them  all. 

The  issue  is  clear  and  distinct  between  the  maintenance  of 
the  American  republic,  free  and  independent;  American 
justice  to  the  rich  and  poor  alike;  American  opportunity  for 
the  boy  and  the  girl;  and  being  so  craven  that  we  will  leave 
our  children  to  be  subjected  to  the  power  of  evil  that  ravished 
Belgium  and  Servia.  Whether  falsehood  and  faithlessness 
and  cynical  contempt  for  morals,  and  cold-blooded  disregard 
of  humanity,  and  utter  absence  of  mercy  and  compassion 
and  denial  of  human  right,  shall  be  the  portion  of  our  children, 
or  whether  the  liberty  which  our  fathers  won  shall  be  handed 
down  to  them  by  the  manhood  of  our  fathers'  sons  and  the 
love  of  our  children's  fathers. 

Ah !  It  has  come  not  too  soon.  It  was  at  the  eleventh  hour 
that  we  came  into  the  vineyard.  The  great  opportunity  of 
the  American  people  was  slipping  away  before  they  could 
grasp  it  —  the  opportunity  to  make  themselves  into  the 
image  of  our  fathers.  The  opportunity  is  to  die,  if  need  be, 
and  to  give  our  dearest  ones  to  death,  that  our  country  may 
live,  that  its  liberty  may  live,  that  its  justice  may  endure, 
that  its  opportunity  for  those  who  toil  and  endure,  may 
continue.  We  have  grasped  the  opportunity  for  that  sacri- 
fice and  suffering  through  which  we  shall  find  our  souls 
again. 

I  thought  as  I  listened  today  to  the  sad  story  of  Edith 
Cavell,  that  it  could  not  be  that  an  infinite  God  would  per- 
mit such  a  dreadful  injustice  to  overcome  the  world.  I  do 
not  know.  We  cannot  measure  the  providences  of  God;  but 
I  have  faith  in  the  power  of  God's  people,  and  God's  people 
are  the  democracies  of  the  earth.  They  are  not  the  czars  or 
the  kaisers  or  the  emperors  or  the  autocrats  or  the  aristoc- 
racies of  the  earth;  they  are  the  democracies  of  the  earth. 
And  I  have  faith  in  the  power  of  democracy  triumphant. 


182  MISSION  TO  RUSSIA 

I  believe  that  struggling  Russia  and  down-trodden  Belgium 
and  awakened  England  and  enduring  France  and  aspiring 
Italy  and  renewed  America,  fighting  in  God's  name  for  the 
principles  of  His  religion,  for  that  compassion,  that  morality, 
that  justice,  which  Christ  preached  upon  earth,  will  over- 
come the  forces  of  a  dark  and  wicked  past,  and  bring  the 
world  into  a  new  day  of  brighter  light  and  happier  life.  And 
in  that  faith,  I  live  —  with  all  the  sorrows,  the  disappoint- 
ments and  the  loss  —  I  live  a  prouder  American  than  I  have 
ever  been  before. 


POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1904 

ADDRESS  AT  BUFFALO,  NEW  YORK,  OCTOBER  22,  1904 

In  the  Presidential  campaign  and  the  intermediate  congressional  elections  from 
1900  to  1916,  during  which  period  Mr.  Root  served  as  Secretary  of  War  and  Secre- 
tary of  State  in  the  Cabinets  of  Presidents  McKinley  and  Roosevelt,  and  as  United 
States  Senator  from  New  York,  he  was  one  of  the  chief  authoritative  spokesmen  of 
the  Republican  Party.  His  speech  at  Canton,  Ohio,  on  October  24,  1900,  in  which 
he  made  the  Administration's  reply  to  the  attacks  of  the  opposition  upon  the  Repub- 
lican policy  for  the  Presidential  campaign  of  that  year,  appears  at  page  27  of  the 
volume  entitled  "  The  Military  and  Colonial  Policy  of  the  United  States  "  in  this 
series.1  Mr.  Root's  speech  as  temporary  chairman  of  the  Republican  National 
Convention  at  Chicago,  June  21,  1904,  hi  which  he  sounded  the  keynote  for  the 
Roosevelt  campaign,  is  printed  at  page  99  of  the  same  volume.  His  address  as 
chairman  of  the  New  York  Republican  Convention,  February  15,  1916,  is  for  the 
most  part  published  under  the  title  "  Foreign  Affairs  1913-16,"  in  the  volume 
entitled  "  Addresses  on  International  Subjects." *  Mr.  Root  delivered  many  political 
addresses  in  different  parts  of  the  country  during  these  years  and  in  subsequent 
campaigns,  and  one  speech  for  each  other  campaign  is  preserved  in  this  volume. 
These  speeches  epitomize  the  political  history  of  the  United  States  during  the  entire 
period  from  the  Republican  point  of  view,  and  are  thus  a  permanent^contribution  to 
the  history  of  the  party  and  of  the  United  States. 

IT  cannot  be  denied  that  this  presidential  campaign  is  of 
inferior  interest  to  many  which  have  preceded  it.  The 
reason  is  plain.  The  opposition  to  the  present  Administration 
has  presented  no  real  issues  to  the  country  for  discussion. 

The  Democratic  party  adheres  to  its  old  position  in  favor 
of  the  free  coinage  of  silver.  The  St.  Louis  convention  refused 
not  only  to  abandon  the  position,  but  even  to  concede  that  it 
had  been  settled  against  them. 

The  Democratic  party  adheres  to  its  old  position  that  pro- 
tection is  robbery  and  that  tariff  should  be  for  revenue  only. 
Its  candidate  says  in  substance  that  the  business  interests 
of  the  country  need  not  apprehend  injury  from  this  source, 
because  there  is  a  Republican  Senate  which  will  prevent 

1  Harvard  University  Press,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  1916. 
185 


186  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

Democratic  tariff  ideas  from  receiving  effect  during  the 
next  Administration.  Tariff  discussion  therefore  would  be 
academic. 

The  Democratic  party  demands  still  further  legislation 
against  trusts  and  monopolies,  without  telling  what  it  should 
be;  but  its  candidate  says  that  the  common  law  affords  a 
complete  remedy,  and,  in  substance,  that  other  and  different 
laws  are  not  needed.  That  appears  to  be  an  issue  in  the 
Democratic  party  —  not  between  it  and  the  Republicans. 

The  Democratic  party  and  the  candidate  insist  that  we 
acquired  wrongfully  the  title  to  the  Panama  Canal;  but  it  is 
impossible  to  treat  that  assertion  seriously  when  in  the  same 
breath  they  declare  that  we  should  keep  the  title  and  proceed 
to  build  the  canal  without  delay. 

Both  the  party  and  the  candidate  say  that  it  is  imperialism 
for  us  to  hold  the  Philippines.  But  the  candidate  truly  says: 

The  accidents  of  war  brought  the  Philippines  into  our  possession,  and 
we  are  not  at  liberty  to  disregard  the  responsibility  which  thus  came  to  us, 
but  that  responsibility  will  be  best  subserved  by  preparing  the  islands  as 
rapidly  as  possible  for  self -government  and  giving  to  them  the  assurances 
that  it  will  come  as  soon  as  they  are  reasonably  prepared  for  it. 

That  is  precisely  what  we  are  doing,  and  precisely  those 
assurances  have  been  given. 

The  only  difference  between  us  is  that  the  Democratic 
party  and  candidate  insist  that  we  should  make  a  promise  to 
the  Filipinos  that  when  they  are  fit  for  self-government, 
whether  that  be  ten  years  or  fifty  years  hence,  the  United 
States  will  give  them  full  independence,  instead  of  leaving  it 
for  the  people  of  the  United  States  and  the  people  of  the 
Philippine  Islands  at  that  time  to  say  whether  full  and  abso- 
lute independence,  or  some  modified  relation  insuring  at 
once  self-government  and  the  stability  and  protection  of  that 
government  will  be  best  for  their  interest  and  ours.  That 
question  is  not  entitled  to  very  much  discussion  now. 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1904  187 

The  course  of  development  of  the  Philippine  people  may 
work  out  an  answer  to  that  question,  or  when  the  time  for 
action  comes  it  may  prove  to  be  complicated  and  difficult  of 
solution;  in  any  event  it  must  be  solved  when  the  time 
comes,  with  reference  to  conditions  in  the  Philippines  and 
the  Orient  generally,  which  it  is  impossible  to  foresee  now. 
Any  attempt  on  our  part  to  settle  now  the  specific  details  of 
their  action,  in  ignorance  of  those  conditions  would  be  both 
foolish  and  futile.  Both  parties  agree  that  the  people  of  the 
Philippine  Islands  are  to  have  self-government  as  rapidly  as 
they  become  fitted  for  it.  That  is  the  declared  policy  of  the 
United  States.  Both  parties  are  agreed  that  our  present  duty 
is  to  promote  the  attainment  of  capacity  for  self-government 
among  the  Filipinos,  who  are  as  yet  far  from  possessing  it. 
That  duty  we  are  performing,  and  overwhelming  and  indis- 
putable testimony  comes  from  the  Philippine  Islands  that 
we  are  performing  it  well.  Neither  party  disputes  that,  pend- 
ing the  performance  of  that  duty  at  least,  American  sover- 
eignty in  the  Philippines  is  to  be  maintained.  The  precise 
way  in  which  that  self-government,  when  attained,  shall  be 
made  most  effective,  stable  and  secure  against  internal  and 
external  foes  is  not  a  present  issue,  and  cannot  be  made  a 
present  issue  before  the  American  people. 

I  know  of  nothing  more  useful,  more  inspiring,  more 
fraught  with  cheerful  hope  for  the  future  of  free  government 
than  the  universal  and  intelligent  discussion  of  great  ques- 
tions of  public  policy  by  the  American  people  during  a  presi- 
dential campaign.  That  is  the  process  which  makes  the 
people  competent,  and  ever  more  competent,  to  govern 
justly  and  wisely.  I  have  no  sympathy  with  those  who 
deplore  the  frequency  of  presidential  elections  and  the 
interruption  to  business  which  they  produce.  The  loss  is 
overbalanced  a  hundred  fold  by  the  strengthening  of  the 
basis  of  all  business  and  of  all  property,  which  under  popular 


188  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

government  rest  upon  public  intelligence  and  public  under- 
standing of  political  questions. 

This  year  we  have  had  little  of  such  discussion.  The 
Democratic  attack  has  degenerated  into  a  mere  fusillade  of 
fault-finding.  Charges  of  extravagance  without  specifica- 
tions, charges  of  disregard  of  the  Constitution  with  trivial 
specifications  having  just  enough  substance  for  lawyers  to 
base  an  argument  upon,  half-truths,  small  lies  about  the 
chairman  of  the  Republican  National  Committee  and  about 
the  President,  spurious  interviews  between  the  President  and 
trust  magnates,  garbled  extracts  from  the  President's  writ- 
ings, false  statements  made  out  of  whole  cloth,  about  what 
the  President  has  said  or  written  about  farmers  and  about 
labor  questions  —  these  are  the  hand  grenades  of  the  Demo- 
cratic onset.  Just  as  President  McKinley  was  called  a 
mollusk  by  these  same  people  because  his  manner  was  kind 
and  gentle  and  reserved,  so  President  Roosevelt  is  called 
violent  and  dictatorial  because  his  manner  is  vigorous  and 
graphic.  When  McKinley  was  President,  Andrew  Jackson 
was  regarded  by  the  Democracy  as  the  true  type.  Now  that 
Roosevelt  is  President,  the  "  mature,  experienced  and  un- 
dramatic  "  Buchanan  is  held  up  for  imitation.  Heaven  save 
the  mark!  Do  they  want  the  country  carried  away  bodily 
while  the  President  sleeps  ?  Ignoring  all  the  great  achieve- 
ments of  the  Republican  administration;  ignoring  pros- 
perity and  laws  enforced  at  home,  peace  and  honor  and 
good-will  abroad,  great  measures  of  policy  carried  to  suc- 
cessful conclusion,  honest  and  effective  government;  ignoring 
all  these,  the  public  is  invited  to  consider  in  how  many 
little  ways  of  form  and  manner  and  method  the  Republican 
administration  has  departed  from  a  standard  of  ideal 
perfection. 

We  have  not  been  perfect;  we  are  all  erring  mortals,  and 
the  Republicans  who  have  been  conducting  the  government 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1904  189 

at  Washington  during  the  last  few  years  have  doubtless  been 
imperfect  enough  to  make  it  possible  for  their  friends  to  feel 
affection  for  them.  But  political  administrations  are  not  to 
be  compared  with  ideal  standards  of  perfection.  We  are  to  be 
compared  with  the  Democratic  party.  Government  in  this 
country,  as  in  all  English-speaking  countries,  is  conducted  by 
parties.  The  combined  and  concurrent  action  of  many  men 
in  legislative  and  executive  office  uniting  to  work  out  prob- 
lems of  state  along  the  line  of  principles  upon  which  they 
agree  is  essential  to  the  conduct  of  representative  govern- 
ment. What  evidence  has  the  Democratic  party  given  of  its 
fitness  to  govern  ? 

There  was  a  Democratic  party  before  the  great  upheaval 
and  political  realignment  of  the  Civil  War,  which  had  political 
principles  —  a  party  that  believed  in  a  strict  construction  of 
the  Constitution  and  the  confinement  of  national  power  with- 
in the  narrowest  possible  limits.  It  opposed  and  destroyed 
the  national  bank  of  the  United  States;  it  denied  the  right  of 
Congress  to  appropriate  moneys  for  internal  improvements, 
or  to  enact  protective  tariffs,  or  to  interfere  with  the  extension 
of  slavery,  because  it  believed  that  the  Constitution  granted 
no  power  to  do  those  things.  Dominated  by  the  master 
minds  of  the  South,  it  was  vigorous,  able  and  competent  to 
govern.  It  annexed  Louisiana;  it  seized  upon  Florida;  it 
made  war  upon  Mexico;  it  enforced  the  Fugitive  Slave  law; 
with  fire  and  sword  it  carried  slavery  across  Missouri  on 
to  the  virgin  soil  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska.  And,  when  the 
awakened  conscience  of  the  North  had  decreed  that  its  rule 
should  end,  with  splendid  audacity  it  welcomed  the  rum  of 
the  Union  which  it  had  so  long  governed. 

Since  the  Civil  War  there  has  been  no  such  Democratic 
party.  There  has  been  an  opposition,  organized  under  the 
name  of  the  Democratic  party.  It  has  been  composed  of 
incoherent  and  warring  factions,  agreeing  upon  no  principle, 


190  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES. 

faithful  to  no  principle,  believing  in  no  principle,  and  held 
together  solely  by  a  desire  to  turn  the  Republican  party  out 
of  office  and  secure  the  offices  in  its  place.  There  is  nothing 
in  common  between  the  old-fashioned  gold  standard  business 
men  of  the  East  who  call  themselves  Democrats  and  the 
populistic  followers  of  Mr.  Bryan  in  the  West  who  call  them- 
selves Democrats,  while  the  representatives  of  the  South, 
elected  without  reference  to  any  national  issue,  but  with  sole 
reference  to  the  questions  arising  from  the  presence  there  of 
the  black  race,  agree  some  of  them  with  Republican  doctrines, 
and  some  with  ancient  Democratic  doctrines,  and  some  with 
new  Populistic  doctrines.  For  forty  years  the  controlling 
motive  which  has  shaped  Democratic  platforms  has  been  the 
desire  to  catch  the  public  fancy  of  the  moment,  and  their 
only  consistent  rule  of  action  has  been  to  affirm  what 
Republicans  deny  and  deny  what  Republicans  affirm. 

What  do  they  really  believe  now  as  to  the  strict  limitations 
of  the  Constitution  upon  the  powers  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment ?  Listen  to  this  declaration,  repeated  in  Democratic 
platform  after  platform: 

Resolved,  That  the  Constitution  does  not  confer  upon  the  general 
Government  the  power  to  commence  and  carry  on  a  general  system  of 
internal  improvements. 

Now  read  the  Democratic  platform  of  1892: 

The  Federal  Government  should  care  for  and  improve  the  Mississippi 
River  and  other  great  waterways  of  the  Republic,  so  as  to  secure  for  the 
interior  states  easy  and  cheap  transportation  to  the  tidewater. 

The  platform  of  1900: 

We  favor  an  intelligent  system  of  improving  the  arid  lands  of  the  West, 
storing  the  waters  for  purposes  of  irrigation,  and  the  holding  of  such  lands 
for  actual  settlers. 

And  the  platform  of  1904: 

We  favor  liberal  appropriations  for  the  care  and  improvement  of  the 
waterways  of  the  country.  When  any  waterway,  like  the  Mississippi 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1904  191 

River,  is  of  sufficient  importance  to  demand  special  aid  of  the  government, 
such  aid  should  be  extended,  with  a  definite  plan  of  continuous  work  until 
permanent  improvement  is  secured. 

We  oppose  the  Republican  policy  of  starving  home  development  in 
order  to  feed  the  greed  for  conquest  and  the  appetite  for  national  prestige 
and  display  of  strength. 

We  congratulate  our  Western  citizens  upon  the  passing  of  the  measure 
known  as  the  Newlands  Irrigation  act,  for  irrigation  and  reclamation  of  the 
arid  lands  of  the  West.  .  .  . 

We  call  attention  to  this  great  Democratic  measure,  broad  and  com- 
prehensive as  it  is,  working  automatically  throughout  all  time  without 
further  action  of  Congress.  .  .  . 

Read  the  platform  of  1896: 

We  demand  the  enlargement  of  the  powers  of  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission. 

Read  the  platform  of  1904: 

We  demand  a  strict  enforcement  of  existing  civil  and  criminal  statutes 
against  all  such  trusts,  combinations  and  monopolies;  and  we  demand  the 
enactment  of  such  further  legislation  as  may  be  necessary  to  effectually 
suppress  them. 

Read  the  New  York  state  platform  of  1902: 

We  advocate  the  government  ownership  of  the  anthracite  coal  mines  by 
right  of  eminent  domain  with  just  compensation  to  the  owners.  Ninety 
per  cent  of  the  anthracite  coal  mines  of  the  world  being  in  the  state  of 
Pennsylvania,  national  ownership  can  be  but  in  the  interest  of  the  whole 
people. 

Is  it  not  plain  that  to  get  votes  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  to 
get  votes  in  the  states  embracing  the  arid  lands  of  the  West, 
to  get  votes  among  the  people  excited  against  great  combina- 
tions of  capital,  and  among  the  people  who  were  suffering  for 
want  of  coal,  cut  off  by  the  strike  in  the  anthracite  regions, 
the  construction  of  the  Constitution  which  the  Democratic 
party  still  professes  in  high-sounding  general  phrases,  has 
been  thrown  to  the  winds  ? 

What  does  the  Democratic  party  really  believe  as  to  the 
tariff  ?  Read  the  old  declaration  of  1856: 


192  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

The  time  has  come  for  the  people  of  the  United  States  to  declare  them- 
selves in  favor  of  free  seas  and  progressive  free  trade  throughout  the  world, 
and,  by  solemn  manifestations,  to  place  their  moral  influence  at  the  side  of 
their  successful  example. 

Read  the  platform  of  1872: 

Recognizing  that  there  are  in  our  midst  honest  but  irreconcilable  dif- 
ferences of  opinion  with  regard  to  the  respective  systems  of  protection  and 
free  trade,  we  remit  the  discussion  of  the  subject  to  the  people  in  their 
Congressional  districts,  and  to  the  decision  of  the  Congress  thereon, 
wholly  free  from  executive  interference  or  dictation. 

Tariff  of  1880: 

A  tariff  for  revenue  only. 

Platform  of  1884: 

The  Democratic  party  is  pledged  to  revise  the  tariff  in  a  spirit  of  fairness 
to  all  interests.  But,  in  making  the  reduction  in  taxes,  it  is  not  proposed 
to  injure  any  domestic  industries,  but  rather  to  promote  their  healthy 
growth.  .  .  .  The  necessary  reduction  in  taxation  can  and  must  be  ef- 
fected without  depriving  American  labor  of  the  ability  to  compete  success- 
fully with  foreign  labor,  and  without  imposing  lower  rates  of  duty  than 
will  be  ample  to  cover  any  increased  cost  of  production  which  may  exist 
in  consequence  of  the  higher  rate  of  wages  prevailing  in  this  country. 

That  is  sound  protection  doctrine.    Platform  of  1888: 

A  fair  and  careful  revision  of  our  tax  laws,  with  due  allowance  for  the 
difference  between  the  wages  of  American  and  foreign  labor. 

Platform  of  1892: 

We  denounce  Republican  protection  as  a  fraud,  a  robbery  of  the  great 
majority  of  the  American  people  for  the  benefit  of  the  few.  We  declare  it 
to  be  a  fundamental  principle  of  the  Democratic  party  that  the  Federal 
Government  has  no  constitutional  power  to  impose  and  collect  tariff  duties, 
except  for  the  purposes  of  revenue  only. 

Platform  of  1904: 

We  denounce  protectionism  as  a  robbery  of  the  many  to  enrich  the  few. 

Here  we  have  the  votes  of  the  American  people  asked  for 
the  Democratic  party  upon  the  ground  that  it  is  in  favor  of 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1904  193 

free  trade,  upon  the  ground  that  the  party  takes  no  position 
whatever  on  the  subject,  upon  the  ground  that  the  party 
will  give  adequate  protection  by  levying  duties  always  equal 
to  the  difference  between  the  wages  at  home  and  abroad,  upon 
the  ground  that  protection  is  unconstitutional,  and  upon  the 
ground  that  protection  is  robbery. 

What  does  the  Democratic  party  really  believe  upon  the 
question  of  reciprocity  ?  Under  the  McKinley  tariff  law  of 
1890,  reciprocity  treaties  were  made  by  President  Harrison 
with  Brazil,  Nicaragua,  Honduras,  San  Domingo;  with 
Great  Britain,  covering  British  Guiana  and  the  West  Indies, 
and  with  Spain,  covering  Porto  Rico  and  Cuba.  Under  those 
treaties  in  four  years  our  exports  to  those  countries  increased 
twenty-six  per  cent,  and  our  imports  from  them  increased 
twenty-eight  per  cent,  while  during  the  same  period  our 
exports  to  other  countries  increased  only  three  per  cent,  and 
our  imports  from  them  decreased  twenty-seven  per  cent. 
This  being  an  established  Republican  policy,  the  Democratic 
platform  of  1892  declared: 

Trade  interchange  on  the  basis  of  reciprocal  advantages  to  the  countries 
participating  is  a  time-honored  doctrine  of  the  Democratic  faith,  but  we 
denounce  the  sham  reciprocity  which  juggles  with  the  people's  desire  for 
enlarged  foreign  markets  and  freer  exchanges  by  pretending  to  establish 
closer  trade  relations  for  a  country  whose  articles  of  export  are  almost 
exclusively  agricultural  products  with  other  countries  that  are  also 
agricultural. 

And,  accordingly,  after  coming  into  power  after  the  election 
of  1892,  the  Democratic  party  proceeded  to  repeal  the  law, 
and  put  an  end  to  all  the  reciprocity  treaties.  The  Demo- 
cratic campaign  book  of  1902  declared: 

Reciprocity  is  based  on  the  same  false  theories  as  is  protection,  and, 
like  protection,  is  a  sham  and  humbug,  and  to  most  people  has  been  and 
will  ever  continue  to  be  a  delusion  and  a  snare. 

Upon  the  passage  of  the  bill  which  gave  effect  to  the 
reciprocity  treaty  with  Cuba  in  December,  1903,  every  vote 


194  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

cast  against  the  treaty  in  either  House  was  Democratic,  and 
a  majority  of  the  Democrats  in  the  Senate  voted  against  it. 
Now,  read  the  Democratic  platform  of  1904: 

We  favor  liberal  trade  arrangements  with  Canada  and  with  peoples  of 
other  countries  where  they  can  be  entered  into  with  benefit  to  American 
agriculture,  manufactures,  mining,  or  commerce. 

The  Democratic  party,  which  regards  reciprocity  treaties 
with  agricultural  countries  as  a  sham,  of  course  does  not 
regard  Canada  as  an  agricultural  country!  Read  also  the 
words  of  the  Democratic  candidate  for  the  Presidency  in  his 
letter  of  acceptance: 

The  persistent  refusal  of  the  Republican  majority  in  the  Federal  Senate 
to  ratify  the  reciprocity  treaties  enacted  in  pursuance  of  the  policies  advo- 
cated alike  by  Mr.  Blaine  and  Mr.  McKinley  and  expressly  sanctioned  by 
the  fourth  section  of  the  Dingley  act,  is  a  remarkable  exhibition  of  bad 
faith. 

There  is  here  absolutely  no  guiding  principle  of  Democratic 
action,  and  no  sincerity  of  Democratic  profession.  When 
the  Republican  party  makes  reciprocity  treaties,  the  Demo- 
cratic party  is  opposed  to  reciprocity;  when  the  Republican 
party  does  not  make  reciprocity  treaties,  the  Democratic 
party  is  in  favor  of  reciprocity. 

What  does  it  really  believe  as  to  the  Isthmian  Canal  ? 
Listen  to  the  declaration  of  the  Democratic  party  platform 
of  1856: 

Resolved,  That  the  great  highway  which  nature,  as  well  as  the  assent 
of  the  states  most  immediately  interested  in  its  maintenance,  has  marked 
out  for  a  free  communication  between  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific  oceans 
constitutes  one  of  the  most  important  achievements  realized  by  the  spirit 
of  modern  times,  and  the  unconquerable  energy  of  our  people.  That  result 
should  be  secured  by  a  timely  and  efficient  exertion  of  the  control  which  we 
have  the  right  to  claim  over  it,  and  no  power  on  earth  should  be  suffered 
to  impede  or  clog  its  progress  by  any  interference  with  the  relations  it  may 
suit  our  policy  to  establish  between  our  government  and  the  governments 
of  the  states  within  whose  dominions  it  lies.  We  can,  under  no  circum- 
stances, surrender  our  preponderance  in  the  adjustment  of  all  questions 
arising  out  of  it. 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1904  195 

That  was  the  platform  on  which  was  elected  **  the  mature, 
experienced  and  undramatic  Buchanan."  Now  read  the 
Democratic  platform  of  1904,  after  the  canal  treaty  had  been 
made  with  the  republic  of  Panama: 

The  Democracy,  when  intrusted  with  power,  will  construct  the  Panama 
Canal  speedily,  honestly  and  economically,  thereby  giving  to  our  people 
what  Democrats  have  always  contended  for  —  a  great  interoceanic  canal. 

Does  it  really  believe  that  the  title  which  it  proposes  to 
keep  is  bad,  and  that  the  policy  declared  in  the  platform  of 
1856  is  wrong  ?  Does  the  Democratic  party  sincerely  believe 
that  it  is  keeping  the  pledge  of  its  platform  of  1872: 

We  recognize  the  equality  of  all  men  before  the  law,  and  hold  that  it  is 
the  duty  of  government  in  its  dealings  with  the  people  to  mete  out  equal 
and  exact  justice  to  all,  of  whatever  nativity,  race,  color,  or  persuasion, 
religious  or  political. 

We  pledge  ourselves  to  maintain  the  union  of  these  states,  emancipa- 
tion and  enfranchisement,  and  oppose  any  reopening  of  the  questions 
settled  by  the  Thirteenth,  Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  Amendments  of  the 
Constitution. 

Upon  two  great  questions  the  majority  of  the  Democratic 
party  has  been  sincere,  and  upon  both  of  them  we  are  asked 
to  drop  the  veil  of  oblivion.  It  was  in  favor  of  the  extension 
of  slavery;  it  was  opposed  to  the  continuance  of  the  war  for 
the  Union.  Its  platform  of  1864,  which  declared  the  war  to 
be  a  failure  and  demanded  its  immediate  cessation,  was  an 
appeal  to  the  weariness  and  discouragement  of  our  people 
under  their  great  burdens,  and  was  intended  to  break  down 
the  administration  of  Lincoln  and  bring  about  disunion.  Four 
years  later  it  declared  in  its  platform  of  1868  that  the  ques- 
tion of  slavery  and  secession  was  settled  for  all  time  to  come, 
never  to  be  renewed  or  reagitated. 

The  Democratic  party  has  been  sincere  also  in  its  advocacy 
of  dishonest  money  and  debased  currency.  In  its  platform  of 
1868  it  declared  for  the  payment  of  the  public  debt  in  green- 
backs, then  irredeemable  and  at  an  enormous  discount. 


196  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

That  was  repudiation.  In  1876  it  demanded  the  repeal  of  the 
act  for  the  resumption  of  specie  payments,  passed  by  a 
Republican  Congress  in  January,  1875.  In  1896  it  demanded 
the  free  coinage  of  silver.  In  1900  it  repeated  that  demand 
and  denounced  the  currency  bill  passed  by  the  Fifty-sixth 
Congress  to  establish  the  gold  standard.  In  1904  it  refused  to 
abandon  its  position,  and  rejected  from  its  platform  the  state- 
ment that  the  question  of  the  standard  was  settled.  Now  we 
are  asked  to  forget  the  record,  because  the  Democratic 
candidate  says  the  gold  standard  is  settled. 

But  it  is  only  by  a  party's  record  that  we  can  know  what 
confidence  to  place  in  its  present  professions  and  its  present 
promises;  and  we  learn  from  the  record  of  the  Democratic 
party  that  expediency,  not  conviction,  the  attraction  of 
votes,  not  the  impulse  of  principle,  determine  what  the 
Democratic  party  shall  profess  and  promise  and  what  it 
shall  omit  from  its  declarations.  Insincerity  is  its  prevailing 
characteristic.  There  are  no  party  beliefs,  there  is  no  party 
conscience,  there  is  no  continuity  of  purpose,  or  striving  for 
consistency,  or  sense  of  obligation  to  past  declarations.  What 
the  party  would  do  if  coming  into  power  it  is  impossible  to 
learn  from  its  past.  That  would  depend  upon  what  individ- 
uals happened  from  time  to  time  to  be  thrown  to  the  surface 
in  the  struggle  for  office.  A  generation  of  attempts  to  pull 
down  and  destroy  Republican  administration  upon  ever 
changing  and  shifting  grounds  has  left  the  so-called  party 
without  the  constructive  faculty  or  the  capacity  to  govern. 

Once  since  the  Civil  War  the  Democratic  party  has  had 
the  opportunity  to  show  by  practical  test  what  it  was.  In  the 
second  administration  of  Mr.  Cleveland  the  Presidency  and 
both  Houses  of  Congress  were  Democratic.  During  that 
administration  the  party  demonstrated  conclusively  two 
things  —  one,  that  it  had  not  the  coherence  and  unity  of 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1904  197 

sentiment  to  make  intelligent  governmental  action  possible; 
the  other,  that  the  worst  element  of  the  party  is  the  element 
that  is  sure  to  control. 

Widely  as  some  of  us  differ  from  Mr.  Cleveland  politically, 
we  can  recognize  the  admirable  qualities  which  made  his 
career  so  distinguished.  His  courage,  his  sturdy  integrity, 
his  strong  sense,  his  sincere  conviction,  his  former  experience 
in  the  Presidency,  his  universal  popularity  among  his  party  at 
the  time  of  his  second  election,  all  contributed  to  inaugu- 
rate the  Democratic  experiment  under  the  most  favorable 
conditions.  The  result  was  a  dismal  and  ignominious  failure. 
Upon  the  record  of  that  four  years  every  sentiment  of 
esteem  and  admiration  for  Mr.  Cleveland  is  a  condem- 
nation of  the  Democratic  party.  The  tariff  bill  framed 
according  to  Mr.  Cleveland's  views  by  the  Wilson  committee 
was  distorted  and  misshaped  by  the  Democratic  majorities 
of  Congress  until  the  President  declared  that  it  meant  perfidy 
and  party  dishonor,  and  he  refused  to  put  his  signature  upon 
it.  The  appointment  of  a  free-trade  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury, a  free-trade  Speaker  of  the  House,  a  free-trade  Ways 
and  Means  Committee,  which  followed  the  election  of  Mr. 
Cleveland,  and  the  framing  and  discussion  of  the  Wilson 
Tariff  bill  were  accompanied  by  widespread  disaster,  the 
closing  of  mills  and  millions  of  workmen  out  of  employment. 
The  government  revenues  fell  off  enormously.  It  was  neces- 
sary to  borrow  money  to  support  the  government  and  to 
maintain  the  statutory  gold  reserve.  In  the  fourteen  years 
which  preceded  March  1,  1893,  the  Republican  party  had 
extinguished  the  public  debt  to  the  extent  of  $1,881,367,873; 
during  the  second  administration  of  Mr.  Cleveland  the 
Democratic  party  increased  the  debt  by  $262,000,000.  I 
know  nothing  more  pathetic  in  the  history  of  American  legis- 
lation than  the  earnest  appeals  of  Mr.  Cleveland  in  his 


198  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

messages  to  Congress  during  the  winter  and  spring  of  1895 
for  legislative  action  to  enable  him  more  readily  to  meet  the 
exigency  which  confronted  his  administration. 

The  Democratic  Congress  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  his  appeals. 
The  very  virtues  for  which  we  admire  Mr.  Cleveland  sepa- 
rated him  from  his  party  in  the  Capitol. 

Hatred  of  Cleveland  and  all  that  Cleveland  represented 
was  the  dominant  force  in  Congress.  Warring  factions  un- 
able to  agree  upon  any  great  public  question  found  a  common 
ground  in  that.  The  feelings  of  the  Whig  party  toward  John 
Tyler,  the  feelings  of  the  Republican  party  toward  Andrew 
Johnson,  were  mild  in  comparison.  The  Populist  Democrats 
of  the  West  hated  him  for  his  conservatism;  the  intriguing 
Democratic  politicians  of  the  East  hated  him  for  his  incon- 
venient adherence  to  the  principles  which  he  professed.  Each 
faction  hated  all  others.  Mutual  distrust  and  dislike  para- 
lyzed the  forces  of  legislative  majorities  bound  together  by 
no  ties  of  common  principle.  The  country  drifted  through 
years  of  industrial  depression  and  disaster,  of  poverty  and 
distress,  without  any  effective  government  until  the  first 
election  of  McKinley  and  a  Republican  Congress  took  the 
reins  of  power  from  the  discordant  Democracy  and  placed 
them  in  the  hands  of  a  party  competent  to  govern.  Modern 
Democracy  triumphant  for  once  had  demonstrated  its  true 
character. 

The  record  of  those  four  years  has  never  been  discussed 
before  the  American  people,  because  in  the  campaign  which 
followed,  the  Democratic  party  itself  repudiated  and  con- 
demned the  record  of  its  own  administration. 

What  cause  is  there  to  believe  that  it  would  do  better  if 
again  placed  in  power  ?  The  arch  enemies  of  Mr.  Cleve- 
land and  all  that  he  represents  in  policy  and  in  purpose  are 
Senator  Gorman  in  the  East  and  Mr.  Bryan  in  the  West.  I 
don't  know  whether  Mr.  Cleveland  would  have  accepted 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1904  199 

another  nomination  for  the  Presidency,  but  it  is  common 
knowledge  that  the  bitter  opposition  of  those  two  men  and 
their  followers  in  the  St.  Louis  convention  made  such  a 
nomination  impossible.  Mr.  Gorman  today  controls  the 
Democratic  campaign  from  the  party  headquarters  in  New 
York.  Mr.  Bryan  today  is  furnishing  the  sole  hope  of  the 
Democratic  party  in  the  state  of  Indiana. 

Differing  as  widely  as  ever  between  themselves,  they  agree 
upon  one  thing,  and  one  thing  only;  that  no  Democratic 
government  shall  be  controlled  by  Mr.  Cleveland  or  by 
Mr.  Cleveland's  friends,  or  by  Mr.  Cleveland's  policies  or 
methods.  To  them  more  than  to  any  other  Judge  Parker 
would  owe  his  election,  if  he  should  be  elected. 

Is  Judge  Parker  abler  and  stronger,  of  higher  courage  and 
more  commanding  personality  than  Grover  Cleveland  ?  Is 
he  better  informed  upon  public  affairs  ?  Has  he  thought  more 
deeply  upon  public  questions  ?  Is  his  statesmanship  broader 
and  more  genuine  ?  If  not,  what  hope  is  there  of  better  things 
with  power  in  Democratic  hands  ? 

Compare  the  promise  embraced  in  this  Democratic  record 
with  the  certainty  of  efficient  administration  demonstrated 
by  the  performance  of  the  last  two  administrations. 

The  standard  that  the  Democratic  platform  sets  up  for 
imitation  in  the  Philippines  is  what  the  Republican  party  has 
done  for  Cuba,  working  along  broad  lines  and  far-seeing 
policies  against  the  opposition  and  cavil  and  aspersions  of 
the  Democratic  party. 

The  opportunity  to  construct  the  Panama  Canal,  which 
with  cheerful  anticipation  the  Democratic  party  proposes 
to  enjoy,  was  acquired  by  Republican  statesmanship  and 
effectiveness. 

The  good  of  the  Filipinos,  to  whom  the  Democratic  party 
professes  such  ardent  devotion,  is  being  attained  under 
Republican  administration  by  a  government  of  which  the 


200  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

Archbishop  of  Manila,  upon  personal   knowledge,  makes 
the  following  statement: 

I  was  impressed  during  my  journeyings  by  the  progress  of  American 
institutions  among  the  masses  of  the  people,  the  general  happiness,  the 
security  of  persons  and  property,  and  the  supremacy  of  order  and  justice. 
I  believe  that  under  divine  guidance  the  beneficent  rule  of  America  is 
destined  ultimately  to  place  the  Christian  Malay  race  on  a  moral  and 
political  plane  that  as  yet  has  never  been  attained  by  an  Oriental  people. 
This  task  that  the  Americans  have  assumed  they  cannot  shirk  or  abandon. 
This  work  that  Governor  Taft  so  auspiciously  began  and  that  Governor 
Wright  continues  must  be  carried  to  a  triumphant  conclusion. 

The  "  open  door  "  in  the  Orient,  which  the  Democratic 
platform  approved,  has  been  held  open  by  Republican  diplo- 
macy, and  to  that  same  diplomacy  under  Republican  admin- 
istration is  accorded  throughout  the  world  an  honorable 
leadership  among  the  nations  in  promoting  the  peace  of 
mankind.  To  this  its  effective  devotion  has  been  attested 
by  the  settlement  of  the  Alaskan  Boundary  dispute,  the 
settlement  of  the  Pious  Fund  controversy  with  Mexico,  the 
peaceful  arbitration  and  settlement  of  the  troubles  of  Vene- 
zuela, the  promotion  of  the  power  and  dignity  of  The  Hague 
Tribunal,  and  the  preservation  of  the  integrity  of  China. 

Practical  legislation  by  Congress  and  effective  enforcement 
of  the  laws  against  illegal  trusts  and  combinations  and  secret 
rebates  have  set  Republican  performance  over  against 
Democratic  declamation. 

The  measure  for  reclaiming  and  making  habitable  the  arid 
lands  of  the  West,  which  is  now  paraded  as  a  Democratic 
measure,  was  a  vague  dream  until  it  was  embodied  and  urged 
in  a  message  of  our  Republican  President,  and  passed  by  a 
Republican  Congress. 

Rural  free  delivery  of  the  mails,  declared  impracticable  by 
the  last  Democratic  administration,  has  relieved  the  isolation 
of  more  than  twelve  millions  of  dwellers  upon  the  American 
farms. 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1904  201 

The  sound  money  basis  of  our  prosperity  was  established 
by  the  Republican  party  against  the  frantic  opposition  and 
wild  denunciation  of  the  Democracy,  as  once  before  a  Repub- 
lican President  and  a  Republican  Congress  had  saved  the 
national  honor  from  the  disgrace  of  Democratic  repudiation. 

A  reorganized  army,  a  real  militia,  active  and  enthusiastic, 
an  enlarged  and  efficient  navy,  well  equipped  coast  defenses 
adequate  to  the  protection  of  OUT  seacoasts,  agriculture  and 
business  promoted,  laws  enforced  and  respected,  prosperity, 
business  activity  and  confidence  at  home,  respect  and  honor 
for  the  American  government  and  the  American  name 
throughout  the  world,  unclouded  peace  with  all  mankind  — 
all  these  testify  to  the  rule  of  a  party  whose  leaders  are  able, 
broad  minded  and  public  spirited  enough  to  shake  off  petty 
prejudices,  to  rise  above  mean  pride  of  opinion,  and  to  agree 
among  themselves  upon  broad  lines  of  public  policy;  the 
rule  of  a  party  coherent,  organized,  disciplined  for  effective 
action;  a  party  with  traditions  and  principles  and  sincere 
purpose;  a  party  strong,  virile,  competent  to  govern;  a 
party  under  the  leadership  of  a  President  who  measures  up 
to  the  full  stature  of  moral  and  intellectual  power  which  the 
pride  and  patriotism  of  Americans  demand  in  an  American 
President. 

Into  the  hands  of  which  party  shall  the  government  of  our 
ever-growing,  ever-developing,  ever-progressing  country,  the 
country  of  our  pride,  our  dearest  hopes  and  our  abiding  love, 
be  committed  ? 


THE  DEMAGOGUE  IN  POLITICS 

ADDRESS  OF  THE  SECRETARY  OP  STATE  IN  THE  CAMPAIGN  OF 
1906,  UTICA,  NEW  YORK,  NOVEMBER  1,  1906 

A  DEMAGOGUE  is  one  who  for  selfish  ends  seeks  to 
^~\.  curry  favor  with  the  people  or  some  particular  portion 
of  them,  by  pandering  to  their  prejudices  or  wishes  or  by 
playing  on  their  ignorance  or  passions. 

We  are  witnessing  in  the  state  of  New  York  one  of  those 
tests  of  popular  government  which  often  have  come  in  the 
past  and  always  will  come  when  a  skillful  demagogue 
attempts  to  get  elected  to  office  by  exceeding  all  other  men 
in  the  denunciation  of  real  evils  and  in  promises  to  cure  them. 
Honest  and  well-meaning  voters,  smarting  under  the  effects 
of  political  or  social  or  business  wrongdoing,  naturally  tend 
to  sympathize  with  the  man  who  expresses  their  feelings  in 
the  most  forcible  and  extreme  language,  and  who  promises  the 
most  sweeping  measures  of  reform;  and  in  the  excitement 
and  heat  of  public  indignation  they  are  sometimes  in  danger 
of  forgetting  that  he  who  cries  "  stop  thief  "  the  loudest 
may  be  merely  seeking  his  own  advantage,  may  be  worth- 
less as  a  leader,  may  belong  to  the  criminal  class  himself. 

The  enemies  of  popular  government  have  always  asserted 
that  the  great  mass  of  a  people,  and  particularly  the  working 
people  could  not  be  trusted  to  reject  appeals  to  passion  and 
prejudice  and  follow  the  dictates  of  sober  reason,  to  distin- 
guish between  mere  words  of  violent  denunciation  and 
extravagant  promise  on  the  one  hand,  and  proved  capacity 
for  useful  and  faithful  service  on  the  other,  and  that  their 
suffrage  would  always  go  to  the  most  violent  and  extreme 
agitator. 

eos 


204  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

The  believers  in  popular  government  have  always  an- 
swered that  in  a  country  where  universal  education  goes 
with  universal  suffrage,  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  and 
particularly  those  who  are  doing  honest  work,  can  be 
depended  upon  to  inform  themselves  carefully  and  to  think 
soberly  and  clearly  about  political  questions,  and  that  their 
plain,  strong,  common  sense  will  surely  detect  and  reject  the 
self-seeking  demagogue,  however  violent  his  denunciation  of 
wrong  and  however  glowing  his  promises  of  redress,  and 
approve  the  genuine  man,  the  competent  man,  even  though 
he  may  not  promise  so  much  or  puff  himself  so  much  or  use 
such  violent  language. 

I  firmly  believe  that  the  contention  of  the  friends  of  popu- 
lar government  is  right;  I  believe  that  the  people  of  this 
country  and  of  this  state,  under  our  system  of  universal 
suffrage  and  universal  education,  are  sure  to  come  out  right 
in  the  long  run.  Nevertheless  it  cannot  be  doubted  that 
many  workingmen  in  this  state,  good  and  honest  men  who 
are  entitled  to  respect  and  who  wish  to  do  the  best  thing 
possible  for  their  country,  are  about  to  strengthen  the 
enemies  and  weaken  the  friends  of  popular  government  all 
over  the  world  by  voting  for  Mr.  Hearst,  who  is  just  the  kind 
of  a  demagogue  that  I  have  described. 

He  is  indeed  an  especially  dangerous  specimen  of  the 
class,  because  he  is  enormously  rich  and  owns  newspapers 
of  wide  circulation,  and  he  can  hire  many  able  and  active 
men  to  speak  well  of  him  and  praise  him  in  print  and  in 
speech  and  in  private  conversation. 

Not  only  is  the  cause  of  popular  government  in  danger  of 
suffering  injury  and  discredit  from  the  vote  for  Mr.  Hearst, 
but  genuine  reform,  the  real  practical  redress  of  the  evils 
complained  of  by  the  people,  is  in  danger  of  being  weakened 
and  brought  to  naught  by  this  attempt  of  Mr.  Hearst  to  get 
himself  elected  governor  of  New  York. 


THE  DEMAGOGUE  IN  POLITICS  205 

The  evils  which  have  come  with  the  enormous  increase  of 
corporate  wealth  in  recent  years  are  real  and  serious;  there 
have  been  many  outrageous  practices  which  ought  to  be 
stopped  and  many  wrongdoers  who  ought  to  be  punished. 
That  should  be  done,  not  by  lynch  law  but  by  the  intelligent 
and  wise  action  which  befits  a  self-governing  people,  deter- 
mined always  to  maintain  the  rule  of  law,  by  reforming  the 
laws  where  they  are  defective,  and  enforcing  the  laws  with 
fearless  vigor  against  rich  and  poor  alike,  and  for  the  protec- 
tion of  rich  and  poor  alike. 

Both  of  these  require  a  high  degree  of  intelligence,  skill, 
and  experience;  declamation  and  denunciation  and  big 
headlines  in  the  newspapers  will  not  do  the  business.  It  is 
easy  to  cry  "  down  with  the  corporations  ",  but  corporations 
are  merely  the  forms  through  which  the  greater  part  of  our 
enormous  business  is  transacted;  they  are  not  formed  by 
special  privileges  to  a  few;  they  are  free  to  all;  anybody  can 
form  a  corporation  by  signing  and  filing  a  paper,  just  as  any- 
body can  form  a  partnership. 

And  the  great  mass  of  our  business  people,  especially  those 
engaged  in  manufacture,  are  doing  their  business  through 
corporate  form;  our  enormous  manufacturing  industry 
could  not  be  carried  on  in  any  other  way.  If  you  destroy 
corporations,  you  close  your  mills  and  your  furnaces,  you 
stop  the  payment  of  wages,  you  destroy  the  purchasing 
power  of  the  wage-workers,  you  reduce  the  sales  of  our  mer- 
chants and  the  markets  for  farm  products.  Corporations 
are  not  bad  in  themselves,  but  the  managers  of  some  of  them 
and  of  many  of  the  greatest  ones  have  used  them  as  oppor- 
tunities for  wrongdoing,  if  not  criminal  wrongdoing. 

The  thing  needed  is  to  cut  out  the  wrongdoing  and  save 
the  business,  and  these  corporations  are  of  so  many  different 
kinds,  engaged  in  so  many  kinds  of  varied  and  complicated 
business,  so  intimately  connected  with  all  the  production  and 


206  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

trade  and  prosperity  of  the  country,  that  the  same  kind  of 
patient,  experienced,  and  discriminating  skill  is  needed  for 
the  process  that  the  surgeon  needs  in  cutting  out  a  tumor 
from  the  human  body  and  saving  the  life  of  the  patient. 

Now,  this  process  of  intelligent  and  effective  redress  of 
wrongs  is  going  on;  great  and  substantial  progress  has  been 
made  in  it;  laws  are  being  re-formed  so  as  to  meet  the  present 
evils;  laws  are  being  enforced  with  vigor  and  success;  male- 
factors are  being  punished  according  to  law  and  not  against 
law;  skill  and  wisdom  and  efficiency  and  honest  purpose, 
never  surpassed  in  the  history  of  this  or  any  other  country, 
have  put  their  hands  to  the  task  and  are  pressing  it  forward 
with  untiring  energy. 

The  most  conspicuous  and  fit  representative  of  this  great 
and  beneficent  work  in  this  state  is  Charles  E.  Hughes. 
There  was  never  occasion  to  feel  more  proud  of  the  great 
profession  to  which  Hamilton  and  Marshall  and  Webster 
and  Lincoln  and  Tilden  belonged,  than  when  through  the 
long  and  weary  months  of  the  insurance  investigation,  with 
patient  and  untiring  industry,  with  courage,  skill,  and 
honesty,  he  followed  step  by  step  the  clues  which  led  through 
all  the  complicated  affairs  of  the  great  companies  to  the  lay- 
ing bare  of  official  wrongdoing.  Neither  wealth,  nor  power, 
nor  social  position,  nor  political  influence  turned  him  aside 
one  hair's  breadth  from  his  course;  nor  did  any  thought  of 
himself,  any  desire  for  popularity,  any  taint  of  self -advertis- 
ing or  self-glorification  obscure  his  vision  or  affect  his  con- 
duct. He  was  the  skilled  and  single-minded  instrument  of 
inexorable  justice. 

When  the  facts  were  all  uncovered,  he  arranged  them  and 
stated  them  so  plainly  that  a  child  could  understand  then- 
deep  significance,  and  then  wisdom  of  no  common  order 
guided  his  judgment  upon  the  legislative  remedies  for  which 


THE  DEMAGOGUE  IN  POLITICS  207 

the  facts  called.  This  work  was  worth  more  than  millions  of 
staring  headlines  and  clever  sensational  editorials,  more  than 
a  wilderness  of  promises  from  one  who  seeks  to  barter 
promises  for  votes.  I  cannot  believe  that  the  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  policy-holders  hi  this  state  are  not  grateful  for 
this  service,  or  that  all  good  citizens  who  justly  resented  the 
wrongs  which  he  uncloaked,  would  not  be  glad  to  have  such 
a  man  empowered  to  continue  just  such  service  in  all 
departments  of  our  state  government  by  his  election  to  the 
governorship  of  the  state. 

The  most  conspicuous  and  fit  representative  of  this  same 
great  and  beneficent  work  in  the  Federal  Government  is 
Theodore  Roosevelt,  President  of  the  United  States.  Let  me 
state  some  of  the  corporate  evils  with  which  he  has  "under- 
taken to  deal;  not  all,  but  the  principal  ones. 

1.  Many  great  corporations  have  united  in  the  formation 
of  so-called  trusts  to  get  rid  of  competition,  create  monopolies 
of  the  business  in  which  they  are  engaged,  restrict  produc- 
tion, and  put  down  the  prices  at  which  they  purchase  raw 
material  and  put  up  the  prices  at  which  they  sell  their 
products. 

2.  Many  great  corporations  and  trusts  have  undertaken 
to  crush  out  their  remaining  competitors  by  unfair  competi- 
tion, and  especially  by  securing  lower  rates  of  freight  from 
the  railroad  companies  for  their  products  than  their  smaller 
competitors;  and  as  the  railroads  are  bound  by  law  to  give  the 
same  rates  to  all  shippers  this  unfair  advantage  has  taken 
the  form  of  secret  rebates. 

3.  Many  railroad  companies  have  exercised  their  arbitrary 
power  to  fix  then*  rates  by  arranging  them  in  such  a  way  that 
even  without  giving  rebates,  they  have  favored  the  large 
shippers  in  special  localities  and  have  been  unreasonable 
toward  small  shippers  in  other  localities.    By  these  unfair 


208  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

means  the  big,  rich  corporations  have  been  continually 
driving  the  small,  weak  men  to  the  wall,  taking  away  their 
business  and  increasing  their  own  wealth. 

4.  The  managers  of  many  great  corporations,  not  satis- 
fied with  the  natural  increase  of  successful  business,  have 
enormously  increased   their  capitalization    beyond    either 
their  investment  or  the  value  of  their  property  fairly  used 
in  business.    Much  of  the  watered  stock  has  been  sold  to 
innocent  investors,  much  of  it  has  been  secured  by  the  man- 
agers themselves,  through  various  devices,  for  insufficient 
consideration.     These  greatly  excessive  capitals,  and  the 
necessity  of  paying  interest  upon  them,   have  stood  as 
barriers  against  the  reduction  of  transportation  rates  or  the 
prices  of  products  to  a  point  which  would  secure  fair  business 
returns. 

5.  The  offending  corporations  have  clothed  their  vast  and 
complicated  business  affairs  with  a  mantle  of  secrecy,  so 
that  it  has  been  almost  impossible  to  get  at  the  facts  of  their 
offending,  and  quite  impossible  for  any  weak,  private  person 
or  small  corporation  that  has  been  injured  by  them. 

6.  One  of  the  great  obstacles  to  the  redress  of  these  evils 
has  been  the  unwillingness  or  inability  of  the  states  to  deal 
with  them.    It  is  difficult  for  any  one  state  to  control  cor- 
porations doing  business  hi  all  the  states.    The  state  cannot 
control  interstate  commerce  at  all.    Many  of  the  states  have 
by  their  laws  as  well  as  by  their  administration  facilitated 
and  encouraged  the  objectionable  practices. 

Let  me  tell  you  that  our  own  state  is  not  blameless  in  this 
respect,  and  that  we  need  a  Hughes  at  Albany,  with  the  skill 
and  courage  to  deal  with  that  subject  as  he  dealt  with  the 
insurance  subject.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment has  been  met  at  every  turn  by  the  difficulty  of  control- 
ling state  corporations  in  the  exercise  of  the  powers  conferred 
upon  them  by  the  state  in  which  they  were  created. 


THE  DEMAGOGUE  IN  POLITICS  209 

Against  these  battlements  of  wrong,  the  President  has 
charged  with  all  the  energy  and  sincere  conviction  of  his 
nature;  he  has  waged  and  is  waging  open  warfare  not  against 
wealth,  but  against  ill-gotten  wealth;  not  against  corpora- 
tions, but  against  the  abuse  of  corporate  power;  not  against 
enterprise  and  prosperity,  but  against  the  unfair  and  fraud- 
ulent devices  of  selfish  greed. 

The  honest  poor  man  who  has  felt  the  crushing  power  of 
unfair  wealth  may  take  heart,  for  the  most  powerful  per- 
sonality of  our  generation,  from  the  vantage  ground  of  the 
greatest  office  of  our  land,  is  leading  the  battle  in  his  behalf; 
the  honest  rich  man  who  fears  that  property  may  be  en- 
dangered and  prosperity  checked  may  calm  his  fears;  not  a 
single  principle  is  invoked  in  this  warfare  against  corporate 
wrongdoing  that  has  not  for  centuries  been  familiar  to  the 
common  law  of  England  and  America;  no  control  is  asserted 
over  business  which  was  not  recognized  and  approved  in  the 
days  of  Mansfield  and  Eldon,  Marshall  and  Kent;  but  to 
exercise  that  same  measure  of  control  under  the  new  condi- 
tions of  our  day  new  agencies  and  new  methods  have  had  to 
be  provided  by  law  and  sanctioned  by  the  courts. 

For  the  accomplishment  of  this  due  measure  of  control, 
which  from  time  immemorial  our  laws  have  recognized  as 
necessary,  the  Government  of  the  United  States  has  taken 
up  the  task  where  the  several  states  have  failed,  and  is 
performing  and  purposes  to  perform  its  duty  not  beyond  but 
to  the  full  limit  of  its  constitutional  power. 

The  structure  of  our  prosperity  will  not  be  weakened,  it 
will  be  made  strong  and  enduring  by  removing  with  the  care 
of  the  experienced  builder  the  rotten  timbers  of  disobedience 
to  law  and  disregard  of  morality. 

The  Republican  Congress  has  stood  loyally  by  the  Presi- 
dent; the  act  creating  the  Bureau  of  Corporations,  the  act 
expediting  the  trial  of  trust  cases,  the  anti-rebate  act,  the 


210  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

act  for  the  regulation  of  railroad  rates,  have  made  possible 
redress  which  was  impossible  before.  Under  the  direction 
of  two  successive  attorneys-general  of  the  first  order  of 
ability,  sincerity,  and  devotion,  in  hundreds  of  courts, 
incessant  warfare  has  been  waged  and  is  being  waged  under 
the  Federal  laws  against  corporate  wrongdoers. 

The  Northern  Securities  Company,  which  sought  to  com- 
bine and  prevent  competition  between  two  great  continental 
railroads,  has  been  forced  to  dissolve  by  the  judgment  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  The  methods  of  the 
Beef  Trust  in  combining  to  suppress  competition  in  the  pur- 
chase of  live  stock  and  the  sale  of  meat  have  been  tried  and 
condemned,  and  the  trust  has  been  placed  under  injunction 
to  abandon  those  practices,  by  judgment  of  the  Supreme 
Court. 

The  combination  of  paper  manufacturers  in  the  territory 
from  Chicago  to  the  Rocky  Mountains,  has  been  dissolved 
by  the  judgment  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  the  combination 
has  been  abandoned  and  the  price  of  white  paper  in  that 
territory  has  gone  down  thirty  per  cent.  The  Retail  Grocers' 
Association  in  this  country  has  been  dissolved  by  decree  of 
the  court.  The  elevator  combination  in  the  West  has  been 
dissolved  in  like  manner.  The  salt  combination  west  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  has  been  dissolved  by  decree  of  the  court. 

The  Wholesale  Grocers'  Association  in  the  South,  the  meat 
combination  and  the  lumber  combination  in  the  West,  the 
combination  of  railroads  entering  the  city  of  St.  Louis  to 
suppress  competition  between  the  bridges  and  ferries  reach- 
ing that  city,  the  Drug  Trust,  which  suppresses  competition 
all  over  the  country,  are  being  vigorously  pressed  in  suits 
brought  by  the  Federal  Government  for  their  dissolution. 

The  salt  combination  has  been  indicted  and  convicted  and 
fined  for  failing  to  obey  the  judgment  of  dissolution.  The 
Beef  Trust  has  been  indicted  for  failing  to  obey  the  injunction 


THE  DEMAGOGUE  IN  POLITICS 

against  it,  and  has  been  saved  so  far  only  by  a  decision  that 
it  had  secured  temporary  immunity  by  giving  evidence 
against  itself.  One  branch  of  the  Tobacco  Trust  is  facing  an 
indictment  of  its  corporations  and  their  officers,  in  the  Fed- 
eral court  in  New  York  and  the  other  branches  are  under- 
going investigation.  The  lumber  combination  in  Oklahoma 
is  under  indictment. 

The  Fertilizer  Trust,  a  combination  of  thirty-one  corpora- 
tions and  twenty-five  individuals  to  suppress  and  fix  prices, 
has  been  indicted,  the  indictments  have  been  sustained  by 
the  courts  and  the  combination  has  been  dissolved.  The  ice 
combination  of  the  District  of  Columbia  is  facing  criminal 
trial.  Special  counsel  are  investigating  the  coal  combination, 
and  special  counsel  are  investigating  the  Standard  Oil 
combination. 

Three  of  the  causes  won  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  have  furnished  decisions  of  the  utmost 
importance. 

In  the  Tobacco  Trust  case  of  Hale  v.  Henkel,  the  Supreme 
Court  denied  the  claim  of  the  trust  corporations  to  be 
exempt  under  the  Constitution  from  furnishing  testimony 
against  themselves  by  the  production  of  their  books  and 
papers  before  a  Federal  grand  jury.  Thus  the  protection  of 
secrecy  for  corporate  wrongdoing  is  beaten  down. 

In  the  Northern  Securities  case,  the  Supreme  Court  held 
that  a  wrong  accomplished  by  means  of  incorporating  in 
accordance  with  the  express  provision  of  a  New  Jersey  statute 
was  just  as  much  a  violation  of  Federal  law  as  if  there  had 
been  no  incorporation.  Thus  the  state  rights  defense  of  pro- 
tection from  favoring  state  statutes  is  beaten  down. 

In  the  Beef  Trust  case,  the  Supreme  Court  held  that, 
although  the  business  of  manufacture  was  carried  on  within 
the  limits  of  a  single  state,  yet  the  purchase  of  the  raw  mate- 
rial in  different  states  and  the  sale  of  the  finished  product 


212  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

in  different  states  brought  the  business  within  the  interstate 
commerce  clause  of  the  Constitution  and  gave  the  Federal 
Government  authority  over  it.  Thus  the  defense  that  the 
state  alone  can  deal  with  manufacturing  corporations,  how- 
ever widespread  their  business,  is  beaten  down. 

The  obstacles  to  the  enforcement  of  the  Federal  anti- trust 
act  thus  removed  are  obstacles  which  stood  in  the  way  of  all 
proceedings,  and  they  had  to  be  cleared  away  before  any 
proceedings  of  the  same  character  against  the  same  classes 
of  corporations  could  be  successfully  maintained.  They  have 
been  removed,  not  by  newspaper  headlines  and  denunciation, 
but  by  skill,  ability,  and  energy  of  the  highest  order. 

After  the  Elkins  anti-rebate  law  was  passed  by  Congress 
in  1903,  it  was  supposed,  and  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission  reported,  that  the  railroads  had  substantially 
abandoned  giving  rebates.  Then*  good  resolutions  do  not 
seem,  however,  to  have  lasted.  The  struggle  for  business 
enabled  the  shippers  soon  to  secure  a  renewal  of  rebates,  or, 
by  ingenious  devices,  advantages  equivalent  to  rebates. 

Thereupon  the  Department  of  Justice  began  active  pros- 
ecutions for  the  enforcement  of  the  law.  Fifty-three  indict- 
ments have  been  found  against  hundreds  of  defendants, 
covering  many  hundreds  of  transactions.  There  have  been 
fourteen  criminal  convictions.  Fourteen  individuals  have 
been  fined  to  the  gross  amount  of  $66,125.  Nine  corporations 
have  been  fined  to  the  amount  of  $253,000.  Thirty-five 
indictments  are  ready  for  trial  in  their  regular  order  upon  the 
court  calendar. 

The  original  statute  provided  only  for  punishment  by  fine. 
Last  winter  it  was  amended  by  providing  for  punishment  by 
imprisonment,  and  if  the  fines  imposed  under  the  original 
law  shall  not  prove  to  have  stopped  the  practice,  we  shall  see 
whether  fear  of  the  penitentiary  under  the  amendment  will 
not  do  so. 


THE  DEMAGOGUE  IN  POLITICS  213 

Under  this  statute  also  it  was  necessary  to  sweep  away 
defenses  which  stood  as  barriers  to  general  prosecution,  and 
in  the  New  York,  New  Haven  and  Hartford  Railroad  case, 
decided  by  the  Supreme  Court  on  the  nineteenth  of  February 
of  this  year,  and  the  Milwaukee  Refrigerator  Transit  case, 
decided  in  the  seventh  circuit  on  the  thirty-first  of  May  of 
this  year,  the  courts  have  held  that  the  substance  and  not 
the  form  is  to  control  in  the  application  of  the  statute,  and 
that,  however  the  transaction  may  be  disguised,  an  unlawful 
discrimination  can  be  reached  and  punished.  The  way  is 
therefore  cleared  for  all  other  prosecutions. 

The  Railroad-rates  act,  which  was  the  subject  of  such 
excited  discussion  during  the  last  session  of  Congress,  has 
already  justified  itself.  Since  the  passage  of  the  act,  less 
than  five  months  ago,  there  have  been  more  voluntary  reduc- 
tions of  rates  by  our  railroads  than  during  the  entire  nineteen 
years  of  the  previous  life  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Com- 
mission. On  the  single  day  August  29, 1906,  two  days  before 
the  act  went  into  force,  over  five  thousand  notices  of  vol- 
untary reduction  of  rates  were  filed  with  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission  by  the  railroads  of  the  United 
States. 

Over-capitalization  is  an  evil  peculiarly  within  the  control 
of  state  governments,  and  one  for  which  we  ought  to  have  in 
every  state  capital  a  man  who  can  do  what  Mr.  Hughes  has 
shown  himself  capable  of  doing;  but  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment, through  the  Bureau  of  Corporations,  is  going  far  on  the 
road  to  a  cure  by  getting  at  the  truth  and  dispelling  the 
darkness  under  the  cover  of  which  the  evil  has  grown. 

Nor  should  other  evils  with  which  the  Federal  Government 
is  grappling  be  forgotten  —  the  Pure  Food  act  and  the  Meat 
Inspection  act  of  the  last  session  of  Congress  are  protecting 
the  food  of  the  people  against  fraud  and  adulteration  and 
contamination;  justice  from  the  employer  to  the  employed 


214  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

is  advanced  by  the  wise  Employer's  Liability  act  of  the  last 
session;  the  Federal  contractor's  eight-hour  labor  law,  too 
long  ignored,  is  being  vigorously  enforced,  and  every  week 
come  reports  of  new  convictions  for  its  violation;  the  safety- 
appliance  law,  discredited  in  the  lower  courts,  has  been  taken 
by  the  Government  intervening  in  aid  of  an  injured  employee, 
to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  in  a  suit  against 
the  Southern  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  and  has  been 
established  upon  a  sure  foundation  by  the  decision  of  that 
great  court. 

All  this  has  not  been  easy;  it  has  required  not  merely  skill 
and  ability  and  patient  industry  and  the  tremendous  per- 
sonality of  the  President,  against  all  powerful  influences 
urging  on  Congress  and  lawyers  and  courts,  but  it  has 
required  and  still  requires  persistency,  long-continued  and 
constant  effort,  a  deliberate,  settled,  and  unvarying  policy. 

That  policy  is  now  before  the  American  people  for  their 
approval  or  disapproval,  and  it  is  confronted  by  two  dangers. 

The  first  danger  is  lest  the  people  should  refuse  to  return 
a  majority  of  Republicans  in  the  House  of  Representatives, 
which  has  stood  so  loyally  by  the  President,  and  should 
return  a  Democratic  majority  which  will  be  in  opposition  to 
the  President.  Do  not  be  deceived  about  that.  Under  our 
system  of  government,  effective,  affirmative  governmental 
action  requires  the  cooperation  of  both  President  and 
Congress;  that  cooperation  can  be  had  only  with  a  House  of 
Representatives  of  the  President's  own  party.  It  cannot  be 
had  by  rejecting  and  punishing  the  members  of  the  House 
who  have  been  working  with  the  President  in  the  past. 

A  Democratic  House,  in  inevitable  conflict  with  a  Republi- 
can Senate,  would  not  really  help  the  Democratic  party,  but 
it  would  hinder,  embarrass,  weaken,  and  dishearten  the 
President  and  his  assistants  in  carrying  on  the  policy  in 
which  they  are  engaged.  Independent  and  patriotic  Demo- 


THE  DEMAGOGUE  IN  POLITICS  215 

crats  equally  with  Republicans  ought  to  avoid  a  result  so 
disastrous  to  our  country. 

It  would  be  unpatriotic  to  deprive  our  government  of  the 
help,  and  this  state  of  the  credit,  found  in  the  able  and  expe- 
rienced service  of  our  respected  and  beloved  Congressman, 
James  S.  Sherman. 

The  second  danger  is,  lest  in  this  greatest  of  states,  the 
President's  own  state,  the  voters  shall  reject  Mr.  Hughes, 
who  was  the  President's  own  choice  for  the  nomination,  who 
by  his  character  and  his  achievements  has  shown  himself  fit 
and  competent  in  the  great  office  of  governor  of  this  state  to 
help  hold  up  the  President's  hands  and  to  carry  on  in  the  state 
the  same  policy  that  the  President  is  carrying  on  in  the 
nation. 

What  evidence  has  Mr.  Hearst  produced  of  his  fitness  for 
this  office  ? 

Of  his  private  lif e  I  shall  not  speak  further  than  to  say  that 
from  no  community  in  this  state  does  there  come  concerning 
him  that  testimony  of  lifelong  neighbors  and  acquaintances 
to  his  private  virtues,  the  excellence  of  his  morals,  and  the 
correctness  of  his  conduct  which  we  should  like  to  have 
concerning  the  man  who  is  to  be  made  the  governor  of  our 
state. 

What  evidence  comes  from  his  public  career  ?  He  has  been 
a  member  of  Congress  from  New  York  City,  and  he  owed  his 
office  to  a  Tammany  organization  and  Tammany  votes  in  a 
Tammany  district;  but  he  has  been  an  absolute  cipher  in 
Congress.  That  is  his  entire  public  career. 

He  is  really  known  to  us  solely  as  a  young  man,  very  rich  by 
inheritance,  who  has  become  the  owner  of  a  number  of  sen- 
sational yellow  journals;  he  has  taken  in  his  newspapers  the 
popular  side  upon  all  questions  relating  to  labor  and  corpora- 
tions and  has  sustained  it  by  much  violent  denunciation  and 
many  falsehoods,  and  he  has  been  a  persistent  seeker  for 


216  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

office  on  the  strength  of  taking  the  popular  side;  he  has 
published  whatever  he  thought  would  please  the  working 
people  for  the  purpose  of  getting  the  labor  vote.  It  is  difficult 
to  believe  that  the  hard-headed,  shrewd  workingmen  of 
America  will  give  him  much  credit  for  that. 

There  is,  however,  affirmative  evidence  of  Mr.  Hearst's 
unfitness  for  the  great  office  of  governor.  You  will  perceive 
that  to  the  remedy  of  corporate  wrongs  for  which  he  offers 
himself  two  things  are  necessary  —  first,  intelligent  and  well- 
devised  legislation,  which  shall  strip  from  the  wrongdoing 
corporate  managers  the  advantage  of  laws  made  under  their 
influence  to  facilitate  their  practices,  which  shall  clearly 
prohibit  their  wrongful  acts,  and  which  shall  provide  the 
machinery  and  procedure  and  the  necessary  agencies  for 
enforcing  those  laws;  and,  second,  the  judicial  enforcement 
of  the  laws,  which  requires  upright  and  courageous  judges 
who  will  administer  the  laws  without  fear  or  favor,  uninflu- 
enced by  wealth  or  popularity  or  personal  friends  or  political 
bosses. 

Underlying  both  of  these  and  necessary  to  both,  is  political 
purity,  for  without  that  neither  legislatures  nor  courts  can 
be  pure. 

How  stands  Mr.  Hearst's  record  as  to  political  purity  ? 
Why,  he  comes  to  us  covered  all  over  with  the  mark  of  Tam- 
many and  Tammany's  leader,  Murphy,  whom  he  himself  has 
denounced  as  a  scoundrel  and  a  thief;  he  comes  to  us  not 
answering  to  the  call  of  the  people  of  the  state,  not  as  the 
honest  candidate  of  the  Democratic  party  of  the  state,  but 
nominated  by  his  own  procurement,  through  as  shameful  a 
deal  with  the  boss  of  Tammany  as  ever  disgraced  a  political 
history  of  the  state  —  a  deal  under  which  a  great  body  of  the 
regularly  elected  delegates  to  the  Democratic  convention 
were  unseated  and,  in  their  absence,  the  nomination  of 
Mr.  Hearst  was  made  by  the  solid  vote  of  the  Tammany 


THE  DEMAGOGUE  IN  POLITICS  217 

delegation.     Can  hypocrisy  go  further  than  the  willing  bene- 
ficiary of  Tammany  Hall  preaching  political  purity  ? 

How  stands  his  record  as  a  legislator  ?  He  has  had  oppor- 
tunity to  prove  his  capacity  and  sincerity  in  that  field.  Rep- 
resentatives are  sent  to  Congress  to  attend  to  the  business 
of  the  country;  there  are  hundreds  of  members  of  both  parties 
working  upon  that  every  day  of  every  session  in  the  per- 
formance of  their  duty;  the  interests  of  the  country  cannot 
be  cared  for  in  any  other  way;  Mr.  Hearst  was  sent  to  Con- 
gress to  do  that;  he  had  an  opportunity  then  to  show  how 
much  sincerity  there  was  in  all  the  talk  of  his  newspapers 
about  reforms  and  better  government. 

What  did  he  do  ?  Why,  he  did  nothing;  during  the  three 
years  that  he  has  been  in  Congress  that  body  has  been  in 
session  467  days;  there  have  been  185  recorded  votes  by  yea 
and  nay;  he  was  present  and  voting  at  but  twenty-three, 
and  present  without  voting  at  two,  leaving  160  out  of  the  185 
roll-calls  from  which  he  was  absent,  and  442  out  of  the  467 
days  of  legislative  session  when  there  is  no  evidence  of  his 
presence;  his  voice  was  heard  in  that  Congress  in  those  three 
years  but  once,  and  that  was  for  ten  minutes  in  a  personal 
explanation  regarding  an  article  published  in  the  New  York 
American;  he  did  not  even  contribute  a  motion  to  adjourn 
to  the  business  of  Congress. 

He  is  so  rich  that  the  $15,000  paid  him  for  that  neglected 
service  may  seem  of  no  consequence;  but  no  honest  poor  man 
would  have  thought  it  right  to  take  it.  Others  doubtless  did 
the  work  Mr.  Hearst  was  sent  to  Washington  to  do;  but  it 
is  of  public  interest  to  know  that  this  man,  who  offers  himself 
for  a  great  public  oflSce  on  the  strength  of  what  he  has 
printed  in  his  newspaper  about  legislative  reforms  and  the 
duties  of  others,  totally  failed  to  perform  his  own  duty  and 
proved  a  worthless  public  servant  in  a  legislative  office  — 
the  only  office  he  has  ever  held. 


218  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

How  does  he  stand  regarding  the  courts?  There,  indeed, 
if  he  is  to  be  taken  at  his  own  estimate,  he  should  be  found 
inflexible;  an  independent  judiciary  should  be  his  dearest 
hope.  As  to  that  he  has  had  a  great  opportunity,  for  this  is 
an  exceptional  year  of  judicial  elections;  ten  new  justices  of 
the  Supreme  Court  are  to  be  elected  in  the  city  of  New  York. 
How  has  he  used  his  new  political  power  concerning  them  ? 
Why,  he  has  made  another  bargain  with  Murphy,  under  which 
Murphy  has  named  six  of  them  and  Hearst  has  named  four! 

Six  justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  named  by  Charles  F. 
Murphy,  the  boss  of  Tammany  Hall,  by  agreement  with 
William  R.  Hearst,  the  self-declared  reformer.  If  he  thus 
delivers  the  power  over  our  courts  to  the  man  whom  he 
declares  to  be  a  thief  and  a  scoundrel,  for  the  sake  of  getting 
votes  for  the  governorship,  what  would  he,  as  governor,  do 
for  the  sake  of  getting  votes  for  the  Presidency  ? 

His  own  corporate  management  shows  the  insincerity  of 
his  professions.  Not  only  does  he  conduct  his  extensive  news- 
paper business  through  corporations,  but  he  has  established 
separate  corporations  for  separate  newspapers  and  he  has 
established  a  holding  corporation  to  hold  the  stock  of  these 
separate  corporations;  and  Mr.  Hughes  has  plainly  shown 
that  he  has  juggled  with  these  different  incorporations  to 
escape  his  just  share  of  public  taxation  and  to  hinder  and 
defeat  the  prosecution  of  just  claims  against  him. 

It  is  seldom  indeed  that  a  man  so  young,  whose  public 
career  has  been  so  brief,  so  small  a  portion  of  whose  life  is 
known  at  all  to  the  public,  has  furnished  such  convincing 
proofs  of  his  unfitness  for  office. 

But  the  worst  of  Mr.  Hearst  is  that  with  his  great  wealth, 
with  his  great  newspapers,  with  his  army  of  paid  agents,  for 
his  own  selfish  purposes,  he  has  been  day  by  day  and  year  by 
year  sowing  the  seeds  of  dissension  and  strife  and  hatred 
throughout  our  land;  he  would  array  labor  against  capital 


THE  DEMAGOGUE  IN  POLITICS  219 

and  capital  against  labor;  poverty  against  wealth  and  wealth 
against  poverty,  with  bitter  and  vindictive  feeling;  he  would 
destroy  among  the  great  mass  of  our  people  that  kindly  and 
friendly  spirit,  that  consideration  for  the  interests  and  the 
rights  of  others,  that  brotherhood  of  citizenship  which  are 
essential  to  the  peaceful  conduct  of  free  popular  government; 
he  would  destroy  that  respect  for  law,  that  love  of  order,  that 
confidence  in  our  free  institutions  which  are  the  basis  at  once 
of  true  freedom  and  true  justice. 

The  malignant  falsehoods  of  these  journals,  read  by  the 
immigrant  in  his  new  home  where  none  can  answer  them, 
are  making  him  hate  the  people  who  have  welcomed  him  to 
liberty  and  prosperity,  to  abundant  employment,  to  ample 
wages,  to  education  for  his  children,  to  independence  for  his 
manhood  such  as  he  has  never  known  before. 

It  is  not  the  calm  and  lawful  redress  of  wrongs  which  he 
seeks,  it  is  the  turmoil  of  inflamed  passions  and  the  terror- 
ism of  revengeful  force;  he  spreads  the  spirit,  he  follows 
the  methods  and  he  is  guided  by  the  selfish  motives  of  the 
revolutionist;  and  he  would  plunge  our  peaceful  land  into 
the  turmoil  and  discord  of  perpetual  conflict,  out  of  which  the 
republics  of  South  America  are  now  happily  passing. 

Does  any  one  question  the  justice  of  these  statements  ? 
Then  let  him  turn  to  the  pages  of  the  newspapers  through 
the  ownership  of  which  Mr.  Hearst  is  pressing  his  political 
fortunes. 

What  public  servant  honored  by  the  people's  trust  has  he 
not  assailed  with  vile  and  vulgar  epithets;  what  branch  of 
our  free  government  has  he  not  taught  his  readers  to  believe 
a  corrupt  agency  of  oppression! 

Listen  to  this  from  the  Journal: 

It  is  the  sad  duty  of  the  Journal  to  announce  to  the  people  of  the  United 
States  that  their  President,  William  McKinley,  has  deliberately  tricked 
Congress  and  the  country.  .  .  . 


220  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

McKinley  and  the  Wall  Street  Cabinet  are  ready  to  surrender  every 
particle  of  national  honor  and  dignity. 

Congress  and  the  people  of  the  United  States  have  been  fooled,  tricked 
and  deceived  from  the  beginning  to  the  end. 

And  to  this: 

/ 

The  Board  of  Elections  has  already  begun  its  disgraceful  and  discredit- 
able work.  It  has  allowed  the  People's  petitions  intrusted  to  its  care  to  be 
marked  and  mutilated  and  destroyed.  It  has  thrown  out  petitions  by  the 
score,  and  its  action  has  been  sustained  by  the  courts  even  as  the  courts 
hist  year  decided  that  you,  as  citizens,  had  no  right  to  have  your  votes 
honestly  counted,  but  must  abide  by  any  returns,  no  matter  how  false,  of 
corrupt  election  officials. 

And  to  this: 

The  effort  is  being  made  now  by  the  criminal  trusts  to  crush  out  the 
power  of  the  people  in  the  American  Government.  These  trusts  control 
your  parties,  control  your  primaries,  control  your  public  officers,  and  deny 
you  the  right  to  any  government  that  will  express  the  popular  will.  You 
are  deserted  and  betrayed  by  the  public  officers  that  should  sustain  you, 
and  by  the  so-called  free  press  that  should  support  you. 

Joseph  H.  Choate,  the  leader  of  the  American  bar,  whose 
honored  and  distinguished  career  is  known  the  world  over, 
who  has  been  the  pride  of  all  true  Americans,  is  stigmatized 
as  "  a  servile  lickspittle  of  corporations." 

Fulton  Cutting,  ideal  citizen,  leader  in  philanthropy  and 
independent  politics,  as  a  "  worthless  poodle.'* 

Edward  M.  Shepard,  the  foremost  advocate  of  civic  virtue 
in  the  Democratic  politics  of  New  York  City,  as  a  "  corpora- 
tion lawyer." 

William  T.  Jerome,  the  Democrat  of  independence  above 
all  others,  as  a  "  political  Croton  bug." 

Timothy  L.  Woodruff,  twice  elected  lieutenant-governor 
of  the  state,  chairman  of  the  Republican  State  Com- 
mittee, as  standing  "  for  everything  rotten  in  Republican 
politics." 

Charles  A.  Towne,  radical  Congressman,  as  "  a  rat." 


THE  DEMAGOGUE  IN  POLITICS 

Richard  Watson  Gilder,  the  leader  of  the  tenement  house 
reform  of  New  York,  as  having  *'  no  more  manliness  than  an 
apple  blossom." 

Thomas  Taggart,  chairman  of  the  Democratic  National 
Committee,  as  "  a  plague  spot  in  the  community  spreading 
vileness." 

Secretary  Bonaparte  as  "  a  cab-horse  —  a  snob." 

Senator  Knox,  the  attorney-general  who  brought  and  won 
the  suit  against  the  Northern  Securities  Company,  as  having 
"  Coal  Trust  guilt  for  a  pillow." 

George  B.  McClellan,  congressman,  mayor  of  New  York, 
and  worthy  heir  of  an  honored  name,  as  a  "  fraud  Mayor," 
"  office  thief,"  and  "  the  dead  cat  in  the  City  Hall." 

Alton  B.  Parker,  chief  justice  of  the  state,  candidate  of 
the  Democratic  party  for  the  Presidency,  as  "  a  cockroach, 
a  waterbug." 

John  Sharp  Williams,  leader  of  the  Democratic  party  in 
the  House  of  Representatives,  as  "  a  railroad  attorney." 

Joseph  G.  Cannon,  speaker  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives —  the  honest,  plain,  typical  American,  as  being  "  as 
little  scrupulous  in  politics  as  a  fox  in  a  barnyard." 

Charles  W.  Fairbanks,  vice-president  of  the  United  States, 
as  "  a  Wall  Street  speculator." 

John  Hay,  the  great  secretary  of  state,  the  cherished  friend 
of  Lincoln  —  noble,  pure,  virile  American,  lover  of  his  coun- 
try and  his  kind,  whose  authorship  has  adorned  our  literature 
and  whose  wise,  strong  statesmanship  has  lifted  high  the 
power  and  prestige  of  America  throughout  the  world,  is 
described  as  *'  a  guy  in  a  ruff  and  a  red  coat." 

To  Thomas  B.  Reed,  the  great  speaker  of  the  House,  he 
writes  in  a  published  letter:  "  You  divide  McKinley's 
infamy  with  him  and  so  make  his  load  the  easier.  By  the 
same  token  you  have  become  a  toad  to  the  public  eye;  you 


222  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

grow  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  thing  loathsome;  your  name 
becomes  a  hissing  and  a  reproach,  and  your  deeds  a  stench 
in  the  nostrils  of  men." 

Grover  Cleveland,  twice  president  of  the  United  States,  is 
described  as  "  no  more  or  less  than  a  living,  breathing  crime 
in  breeches." 

Theodore  Roosevelt,  president  of  the  United  States,  is 
called  "  a  loose-tongued  demagogue,"  "  a  woman  killer," 
"  a  flagrant  tax  dodger,"  "  a  player  to  the  colored  gallery," 
"  a  man  with  the  caste  feeling,"  one  who  **  has  sold  himself 
to  the  devil  and  will  live  up  to  the  bargain." 

Once  only  has  this  method  of  incendiary  abuse  wrought 
out  its  natural  consequence  —  in  the  murder  of  President 
McKinley.  For  years,  by  vile  epithet  and  viler  cartoons,  the 
readers  of  the  Journal  were  taught  to  believe  that  McKinley 
was  a  monster  in  human  form,  whose  taking-off  would  be  a 
service  to  mankind.  Let  me  quote  some  of  these  teachings: 

McKinley  condones  the  treacherous  murder  of  our  sailors  at  Havana 
and  talks  of  his  confidence  in  the  honor  of  Spain.  He  plays  the  coward  and 
shivers  white-faced  at  the  footfall  of  approaching  war.  He  makes  an 
international  cur  of  his  country.  He  is  an  abject,  weak,  futile,  incompetent 
poltroon. 

McKinley,  bar  one  girthy  Princeton  person,  who  came  to  be  no  more 
or  less  than  a  living,  breathing  crime  hi  breeches,  is  therefore  the  most 
despised  and  hated  creature  in  the  hemisphere;  his  name  is  hooted;  his 
figure  is  burned  in  effigy. 

The  bullet  that  pierced  Goebel's  chest 
Cannot  be  found  in  all  the  West; 
Good  reason,  it  is  speeding  here 
To  stretch  McKinley  on  his  bier. 

And  this,  in  April,  1901 : 

Institutions,  like  men,  will  hist  until  they  die;  and  if  bad  institutions 
and  bad  men  can  be  got  rid  of  only  by  killing,  then  the  killing  must  be 
done. 

And  this,  in  June,  1901 : 

There  has  been  much  assassination  in  the  world,  from  the  assassination 
of  some  old  rulers  who  needed  assassination  to  the  assassination  of  men  in 


THE  DEMAGOGUE  IN  POLITICS  223 

England,  who,  driven  to  steal  by  hunger,  were  caught  and  hanged  most 
legally.  .  .  . 

Is  there  any  doubt  that  the  assassination  of  Marat  by  Charlotte  Corday 
changed  history  to  some  extent  ?  What  proof  is  there  that  France  would 
have  settled  down  into  imperial  Napoleonism  and  prosperity  if  Marat,  the 
wonderful  eye  doctor,  had  been  allowed  to  live  to  retain  his  absolute 
mastery  of  the  Paris  populace  ?  .  .  . 

If  Cromwell  had  not  resolved  to  remove  the  head  of  Charles  I  from  his 
lace  collar,  would  England  be  what  she  is  today  —  a  really  free  nation  and 
a  genuine  republic  ? 

Did  not  the  murder  of  Lincoln,  uniting  in  sympathy  and  regret  all  good 
people  in  the  North  and  South,  hasten  the  era  of  American  good  feeling 
and  perhaps  prevent  the  renewal  of  fighting  between  brothers  ? 

The  murder  of  Caesar  certainly  changed  the  history  of  Europe,  besides 
preventing  that  great  man  from  ultimately  displaying  vanity  as  great  as 
his  ability. 

When  wise  old  sayings,  such  as  that  of  Disraeli  about  assassination,  are 
taken  up  it  is  worth  while,  instead  of  swallowing  them  whole,  to  analyze 
them.  We  invite  our  readers  to  think  over  this  question.  The  time 
devoted  to  it  will  not  be  wasted. 

What  wonder  that  the  weak  and  excitable  brain  of  Czol- 
gosz  answered  to  such  impulses  as  these!  He  never  knew 
McKinley;  he  had  no  real  or  fancied  wrongs  of  his  own  to 
avenge  against  McKinley  or  McKinley 's  government;  he 
was  answering  to  the  lesson  he  had  learned,  that  it  was  a  ser- 
vice to  mankind  to  rid  the  earth  of  a  monster;  and  the  fore- 
most of  the  teachers  of  these  lessons  to  him  and  his  kind  was 
and  is  William  Randolph  Hearst  with  his  yellow  journals. 

The  offense  is  deepened  by  the  revolting  hypocrisy  which, 
to  avert  public  indignation  when  the  fatal  blow  had  been 
struck  and  that  strong  and  gentle  spirit  had  departed, 
lauded  the  dead  President  to  the  skies,  and  said  of  him  in  the 
New  York  Journal: 

Nowhere  in  the  history  of  great  men's  lives,  or  of  great  men's  deaths, 
can  be  found  such  resignation  and  deep  religious  faith  as  marked  the  last 
hours  of  William  McKinley.  He  faced  the  other  world  and  the  other  life 
with  the  quiet,  confident  hope  of  a  man  who  had  done  his  best.  Slowly  the 
heart's  strength  died  out.  It  had  carried  him  through  two  wars,  through 


224  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

many  political  battles,  through  many  long  days  of  toil,  through  many 
years  of  hard  work  and  serious  purpose.  He  began  life  as  a  simple  Chris- 
tian citizen.  He  worked  hard.  He  interested  himself  in  his  country's 
welfare.  He  succeeded;  he  reached  the  highest  place  in  the  nation.  He 
exercised  and  represented  the  greatest  of  earthly  powers.  He  was  called 
a  second  time  to  the  highest  position  that  men  can  give  to  any  man.  He 
ended  his  life  as  he  began  it  —  a  simple  Christian  citizen. 

Is  there  no  one  left  who  loved  McKinley  ?  Are  there  no 
workingmen  left  in  New  York  who  can  not  see  with  satisfac- 
tion honors  heaped  upon  the  man  who  is  not  guiltless  of 
McKinley's  death  ? 

The  same  kind  of  teaching  is  being  continued  now  month 
by  month  and  day  by  day  in  the  Hearst  journals.  Its  legiti- 
mate consequence,  if  continued,  must  be,  other  weak  dupes 
playing  the  role  of  Czolgosz;  other  McKinleys  stretched 
upon  the  bier;  discord  and  bloody  strife  in  place  of  the  reign 
of  peace  and  order  throughout  our  fan*  land.  It  is  not  the 
spirit  of  Washington  and  of  Lincoln;  it  is  the  spirit  of  malice 
for  all  and  charity  towards  none;  it  is  the  spirit  of  anarchy, 
of  communism,  of  Kishineff  and  of  Bielostok. 

Men  of  New  York,  do  you  love  your  country  ?  Are  you 
not  proud  of  your  country  ?  Are  not  its  liberty,  its  justice, 
its  equal  laws,  the  best  that  weak  and  erring  men  have  ever 
yet  attained  in  this  world  ?  Have  not  those  of  you  who  have 
come  to  us  from  other  lands  found  better  conditions  of  life, 
better  employment,  better  wages,  greater  personal  indepen- 
dence and  dignity,  better  opportunities  for  your  children 
than  ever  before  ?  Do  you  wish  to  join  your  voices  to  that 
which  declares  this  freest  of  republics,  this  foremost  result 
of  government  by  the  people,  to  be  all  vile  and  rotten  and 
disgraceful  ? 

The  public  knows  the  character  of  Mr.  Hearst  only  by  the 
newspapers  he  publishes,  and  God  forbid  that  we  should  set 
up  in  the  high  station  of  governor  of  New  York,  for  the 
admiration  and  imitation  of  our  children,  the  man  whose 


THE  DEMAGOGUE  IN  POLITICS  225 

character  is  reflected  in  the  columns  of  the  New  York  Journal 
and  the  New  York  American*. 

The  immediate  and  necessary  effect  of  Mr.  Hearst's  elec- 
tion would  be  to  deprive  the  President  of  the  moral  support 
of  the  state  of  New  York;  it  would  be  to  strengthen  the 
President's  enemies  and  opponents  and  to  weaken  and 
embarrass  him  in  the  pursuit  of  his  policy. 

The  election  of  this  violent  extremist  would  inevitably 
lead  to  a  reaction  against  all  true  reform  and  genuine  redress 
of  grievances.  There  is  no  enemy  of  true  reform  so  fatal  as 
sham  reform;  there  is  no  enemy  of  the  sincere  and  faithful 
public  servant  who  is  seeking  by  patient  and  well  directed 
effort  to  frame  and  to  enforce  just  laws,  like  the  selfish  agita- 
tor who  is  seeking  his  own  advancement;  there  is  no  ally  of 
unscrupulous  wealth  so  potent  as  the  violent  extremist  who 
drives  good,  honest,  and  conservative  men  away  from  the 
cause  of  true  reform  by  the  violence  of  his  words  and  the 
intemperance  of  his  excessive  proposals. 

I  beg  the  workingmen  of  New  York  who  may  hear  or  read 
my  words  to  think  upon  these  questions.  Do  you  believe 
in  President  Roosevelt  ?  Do  you  agree  with  his  policy  in 
pursuing  and  preventing  corporate  wrongdoing  ?  Do  you 
wish  that  he  may  be  able  to  continue  that  policy  with  power 
and  success  ?  If  you  do,  then  help  him  by  your  votes. 

I  say  to  you,  with  his  authority,  that  he  greatly  desires  the 
election  of  a  Republican  House  of  Representatives  to  work 
with  him  in  the  next  Congress;  I  say  to  you,  with  his  author- 
ity, that  he  greatly  desires  the  election  of  Mr.  Hughes  as 
governor  of  the  state  of  New  York;  I  say  to  you,  with  his 
authority,  that  he  regards  Mr.  Hearst  as  wholly  unfit  to  be 
governor,  as  an  insincere,  self-seeking  demagogue,  who  is 
trying  to  deceive  the  workingmen  of  New  York  by  false 
statements  and  false  promises;  and  I  say  to  you,  with  his 
authority,  that  he  considers  that  Mr.  Hearst's  election  would 


226  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

be  an  injury  and  a  discredit  alike  to  honest  labor  and  to 
honest  capital,  and  a  serious  injury  to  the  work  in  which  he  is 
engaged  of  enforcing  just  and  equal  laws  against  corporate 
wrongdoing. 

President  Roosevelt  and  Mr.  Hearst  stand  as  far  as  the 
poles  asunder.  Listen  to  what  President  Roosevelt  himself 
has  said  of  Mr.  Hearst  and  his  kind.  In  President  Roose- 
velt's first  message  to  Congress,  in  speaking  of  the  assassin 
of  McKinley,  he  spoke  of  him  as  inflamed  "  by  the  reckless 
utterances  of  those  who,  on  the  stump  and  in  the  public  press, 
appeal  to  the  dark  and  evil  spirits  of  malice  and  greed,  envy 
and  sullen  hatred.  The  wind  is  sowed  by  the  men  who  preach 
such  doctrines,  and  they  cannot  escape  their  share  of  respon- 
sibility for  the  whirlwind  that  is  reaped.  This  applies  alike 
to  the  deliberate  demagogue,  to  the  exploiter  of  sensation- 
alism, and  to  the  crude  and  foolish  visionary  who,  for  whatever 
reason,  apologizes  for  crime  or  excites  aimless  discontent." 

I  say,  by  the  President's  authority,  that  in  penning  these 
words,  with  the  horror  of  President  McKinley's  murder  fresh 
before  him,  he  had  Mr.  Hearst  specifically  in  his  mind. 

And  I  say,  by  his  authority,  that  what  he  thought  of  Mr. 
Hearst  then  he  thinks  of  Mr.  Hearst  now. 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1908 

ADDRESS  OF  THE  SECRETARY  OF  STATE  AS  CHAIRMAN  OF  THE 

REPUBLICAN  STATE  CONVENTION,  SARATOGA  SPRINGS 

NEW  YORK,  SEPTEMBER  14,  1908 

JUST  a  decade  has  passed  since  we  were  assembled  in  this 
place  engaged  in  the  business  of  nominating  Theodore 
Roosevelt  for  governor  of  New  York.  We  are  now  to  nomi- 
nate a  successor  to  Charles  E.  Hughes  as  governor;  and  we 
are  to  perform  that  duty  according  to  our  wisdom,  our  loy- 
alty to  party  and  to  country  in  such  a  way  that  the  Empire 
State  shall  surely  cast  her  electoral  vote  for  the  Republican 
candidate  to  succeed  the  same  Theodore  Roosevelt  as  presi- 
dent of  the  United  States. 

May  we  not  discern  in  the  performance  of  that  duty  an 
opportunity  broader  in  its  scope,  more  compelling  in  its 
obligation  than  the  mere  attainment  of  local  success  ?  May 
we  not  do  our  work  here  in  such  a  way  and  in  such  a  spirit 
that  throughout  all  the  country,  Republicans  shall  be  inspired 
with  courage  and  hope,  and  every  doubtful  voter  shall  be 
convinced  by  proof  that  in  this  great  representative  state, 
the  home  of  the  candidate  for  vice-president,  Republicans 
are  sincere  in  their  professions,  loyal  to  their  principles,  unsel- 
fish in  their  patriotism,  truly  representative  of  the  body  of 
the  people  and  worthy  of  the  great  traditions  of  the  party 
of  Lincoln  ? 

We  have  a  record  which  forbids  discouragement  or  doubt 
in  the  performance  of  our  task.  We  can  turn  to  the  admin- 
istrations, now  drawing  to  a  close,  both  in  the  state  and  in 
the  nation,  and  with  confidence  ask  every  American  voter 
to  say  whether  they  have  not  met  all  the  great  fundamental 

827 


228  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

requisites  of  good  government,  whether  they  do  not  justify  the 
belief  that  it  is  best  for  the  country  to  keep  in  power  the  party 
which  is  responsible  for  them  and  is  entitled  to  the  credit  of 
them.  Have  not  these  administrations  within  the  state  and 
in  the  nation  been  honest  ?  Have  they  not  been  capable  ? 
Have  they  not  been  efficient  ?  Have  they  not  set  before  all 
the  people  of  America  examples  of  pure,  high-minded  and 
patriotic  service  in  public  office  ?  Have  they  not  raised  the 
standard  of  public  duty  which  the  young  men  of  America 
set  for  themselves  ?  Have  they  not  done  us  honor  before 
the  world  ? 

These  are  the  true  tests  by  which  to  determine  whether  it 
is  wise  to  continue  a  political  party  in  power.  It  is  such  tests 
as  these  that  we  all  apply  in  our  private  affairs  when  we  select 
a  business  agent  or  a  trustee  or  a  lawyer  or  a  teacher  for  our 
children.  Common  sense  dictates  their  application  in  the 
selection  of  our  agents  and  trustees  for  public  business.  All 
parties  make  promises  before  election  agreeable  to  the  ear 
and  satisfying  to  the  wishes  of  voters;  but  will  they  keep  the 
promises  ?  What  is  the  evidence  that  they  are  made  up  of 
men  who  have  the  honest  will,  the  firmness  of  character  and 
the  ability,  without  which  such  promises  are  worthless  ? 
Look  to  the  record;  see  what  parties  have  done  in  the  past, 
and  learn  there  which  should  be  trusted  for  the  future.  Look 
not  to  petty,  refined  details,  but  to  the  broad  question 
whether,  taken  as  a  whole,  their  wisdom,  efficiency,  and 
honesty  in  the  past  give  promise  of  wisdom,  efficiency,  and 
honesty  in  the  future.  The  answer  to  this  question  will  be 
worth  more  as  a  guide  to  the  voters  at  the  coming  election 
than  all  the  discussion  over  fine-spun  theories  and  sanguine 
conjectures  that  can  be  crowded  into  a  presidential  campaign. 

There  have  been  two  special  and  notable  characteristics  in 
which  these  two  administrations  have  been  alike.  One  is 
that  they  have  both  gone  directly  to  the  people  of  the  coun- 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1908  229 

try,  to  the  great  body  of  the  electors  themselves,  for  their 
inspiration  and  their  strength.  Neither  Governor  nor  Presi- 
dent has  relied  upon  that  view  of  expediency  in  the  conduct 
of  public  affairs  which  is  to  be  gained  by  secret  conferences 
in  closed  rooms.  They  have  construed  their  representation 
of  the  people  as  being  immediate  and  without  intervening 
authority  or  interpreters.  When  they  have  formed  opinions 
as  to  the  lines  of  policy  which  it  was  wise  to  follow  in  the 
performance  of  their  duties,  they  have  explained  their 
opinions  directly,  through  the  press  and  through  public 
speeches,  to  the  people  who  elected  them,  and,  having  got 
back  the  people's  answer,  they  have  given  due  weight 
and  effect  to  it,  in  accordance  with  the  true  principles  of 
representative  government. 

The  second  special  resemblance  is  in  a  much  more  than 
ordinary  vigor  and  sternness  in  the  enforcement  of  law, 
which  have  characterized  both  state  and  national  adminis- 
trations. Does  the  constitution  of  the  state  say  that  no 
gambling  shall  be  allowed  in  the  state  ?  Then  it  seems  to 
the  state  administration  a  compulsory  and  inevitable  con- 
clusion to  be  forthwith  acted  upon  with  all  the  power  of  the 
state,  that  such  allowance  must  be  stopped  at  all  hazards,  no 
matter  who  is  hurt  or  who  is  offended.  Do  the  laws  of  the 
United  States  declare  that  there  shall  be  no  discrimination  in 
railroad  rates  between  shippers  great  or  small  ?  Then  dis- 
criminations and  rebates  must  be  stopped  by  the  whole 
aggressive  force  of  the  National  Government,  whatever  the 
cost,  however  great  and  powerful  may  be  the  offenders 
pursued,  however  injurious  may  be  their  enmity.  The 
novelty  of  this  strenuous  law  enforcement  has  not  consisted 
in  applying  any  new  theories  of  governmental  control  or  in 
the  exercise  of  any  new  powers,  but  rather  in  breaking  up  the 
sleepy  old  methods  of  procedure,  in  securing  practically 
adequate  administrative  statutes  to  give  life  to  the  old 


230  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

constitutional  and  statutory  declarations  of  general  rules 
which  were  by  themselves  ineffective,  and  in  putting  force 
and  momentum  into  the  attack  on  established  and  custom- 
ary evils. 

When  continuous  and  widespread  violations  of  law  have 
been  profitable  and  many  persons  have  a  special  pecuniary 
interest  against  any  interference  with  them,  they  present  a 
degree  of  resistance  to  law  enforcement  which  can  be  over- 
come only  by  an  awakened  public  interest,  and  by  a  degree 
of  apparent  excitement  which  sometimes  seems  like  undue 
violence,  for  force  must  be  proportioned  to  resistance.  It  is 
impossible  to  burst  open  doors  softly.  An  incident  to  this 
kind  of  vigorous  law  enforcement  is  the  resentment  and 
revengeful  feeling  of  the  people  whose  profits  are  interfered 
with.  Of  this  feeling,  awakened  by  Republican  law  enforce- 
ment, the  Democratic  party  now  gladly  takes  the  benefit, 
and  one  of  the  serious  questions  of  this  campaign  is  to  be 
whether  the  people  of  the  country  are  going  to  permit  the 
Republican  party  to  suffer  for  having  enforced  the  law  in 
the  state  and  the  nation,  or  whether  they  are  going  to  back 
up  law  enforcement  by  their  approval  shown  in  their  votes 
for  the  Republican  candidates. 

In  every  department  of  the  National  Government  since  the 
decisive  approval  of  Republican  administration  given  in 
the  great  majorities  four  years  ago,  there  has  been  practical 
effectiveness  of  action  which  should  be  highly  satisfactory  to 
all  the  people  of  the  country  who  really  care  about  having 
the  government  business  well  and  creditably  done. 

The  financial  panic  of  last  autumn  which  resulted,  as  so 
many  panics  have  before,  from  reckless  extravagance  and 
wild  speculation,  was  checked  by  the  firm  hand  and  clear 
understanding  of  national  financial  administration.  Confi- 
dence was  restored.  The  panic  has  passed  away,  revealing 
a  substantial  business  soundness  and  widely  diffused  wealth 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1908  231 

throughout  the  country,  unprecedented  in  our  history  and 
the  result  of  a  long  period  of  wise  and  able  Republican 
administration;  and  the  Republican  Congress,  against  much 
Democratic  opposition,  has  enacted  a  wise  law  to  make 
such  a  panic  as  that  impossible  in  the  future. 

Our  War  Department  has  continued  to  be  an  agent  for 
peace  and  for  the  spread  of  American  ideals  of  ordered  lib- 
erty. The  Filipinos,  already  initiated  by  us  in  the  practice 
of  local  self-government  hi  their  barrios  and  provinces,  have 
now  been  taught  the  first  step  towards  national  self-govern- 
ment by  the  successful  inauguration  of  the  Philippine 
Legislative  Assembly. 

Cuba  has  been  pacified.  Her  armies,  on  the  verge  of 
bloodshed,  have  been  induced  to  lay  down  their  arms,  and, 
under  the  intervening  government  and  guidance  of  the 
United  States,  through  perfectly  peaceful  and  orderly  elec- 
tions, Cuba  is  about  to  embark  in  her  second  attempt  at 
independent  self-government. 

Under  the  medical  officers  of  the  army  the  Isthmus  of 
Panama,  where  pestilence  had  ruled  for  centuries  and  work- 
men died  like  flies,  has  been  made  healthful  and  safe;  yellow 
fever  has  been  banished,  malaria  has  been  reduced  and  the 
death  rate  among  the  thirty  thousand  employees  engaged  in 
the  canal  work  has  been  reduced  to  the  ordinary  average 
level  of  our  American  cities.  Under  the  engineer  officers  of 
the  army  the  work  of  excavation  and  construction  is  pro- 
gressing with  a  rapidity  never  before  known  upon  any  work  in 
the  world,  and  the  simple  continuance  of  the  present  condi- 
tions will  within  the  next  seven  years  crown  the  work  by  the 
completion  of  the  canal,  to  the  imperishable  honor  of 
America  as  a  benefactor  of  civilization.  What  will  happen 
if  the  American  people  change  the  administration  with  all  the 
chances  of  incapacity,  inexperience  and  doubtful  experiment 
no  one  can  forecast. 


232  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

The  extraordinary  voyage  of  our  battleship  fleet,  circum- 
navigating South  America,  to  the  extreme  northern  boundary 
of  our  western  coast,  across  the  wide  Pacific  to  far-off  New 
Zealand  and  Australia,  and  so  along  its  way  around  the 
world,  has  evoked  much  discussion  as  to  both  political  and 
naval  policy.  In  both  of  these  the  developments  of  the  voy- 
age have  shown  that  the  policy  of  the  Administration  was 
sound  and  far-sighted.  There  is  one  other  thing  which  the 
voyage  has  shown  beyond  peradventure;  it  is  that  there  has 
been  only  sound  and  honest  work  under  the  Navy  Depart- 
ment in  construction,  in  equipment  and  in  training.  The 
unexampled  test  to  which  this  fleet  has  been  subjected 
absolutely  excludes  any  possibility  of  graft  or  slackness  or 
false  pretense  in  naval  administration. 

The  Post  Office  Department  has  increased  its  receipts  from 
$82,665,462.73  in  1897  to  $183,585,005.57  in  1907.  It  has 
increased  the  number  of  pieces  handled  from  5,781,002,143 
in  1897  to  12,255,666,367  in  1907.  It  has  increased  the  Rural 
Free  Delivery  routes  from  83  in  1897  to  37,728  in  1907,  and 
39,270  in  1908,  serving  sixteen  million  people,  while  it  has 
decreased  the  number  of  post  offices  from  76,945  in  1901  to 
62,659  in  1907.  The  great  increase  in  circulation  of  news- 
papers and  magazines  along  the  Rural  Free  Delivery  routes, 
the  bringing  of  up-to-date  information  about  markets  and 
improvements  and  current  events  to  the  farmer,  the  relief  to 
the  isolation  of  farm  life,  all  testify  to  the  wisdom  of  this 
beneficent  Republican  policy,  which  had  its  origin  under 
President  McKinley  and  its  great  development  under  Presi- 
dent Roosevelt.  The  Post  Office  Department  has  effected  a 
saving  of  nearly  five  millions  a  year  by  reform  in  the  weighing 
of  railway  mails.  It  has  almost  completed  the  list  of  parcel- 
post  conventions  with  the  other  nations  of  the  world.  It  has 
given  security  of  tenure  to  good  postmasters,  has  reduced 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1908  233 

the  hours  of  labor  and  has  increased  the  promptness  and 
efficiency  of  the  service. 

The  Department  of  Justice  has  borne  the  burden  of  vast 
and  complicated  litigation  necessary  to  the  legal  assault  upon 
widespread  and  deeply  intrenched  abuses  defended  by  wealth 
and  influence  and  power  in  many  fields.  By  investigations 
and  suits  and  prosecutions  it  has  substantially  put  an  end  to 
the  almost  universal  practice  of  railroad  rebates.  It  has 
halted  and  made  it  plain  that  if  allowed  to  continue  in  the 
same  way  it  will  inevitably  end  the  oppressive  and  unfair 
practices  through  which  great  combinations  of  capital  have 
been  acquiring  monopolies  and  crushing  weaker  competitors. 
It  has  compelled  the  land  thieves  and  timber  thieves  who  had 
fastened  themselves  upon  the  great  government  domains 
in  the  West  to  give  up  their  plunder.  By  prosecutions  under 
the  penal  clauses  of  the  postal  laws  it  has  put  an  end  to 
lotteries  in  the  United  States.  It  has  conducted  an  effec- 
tive campaign  against  the  practice  of  peonage,  a  thin  disguise 
under  which  slavery  was  again  reappearing  in  certain  regions 
of  the  South.  Under  the  wise  policy  of  recent  Republican 
legislation  it  has  asserted  the  value  of  American  citizenship 
by  scrutinizing  for  the  first  time  in  our  history  the  proceed- 
ings in  the  multitude  of  courts  which  have  power  to  grant 
naturalization,  and  by  prosecuting  the  fraudulent  practices 
under  which,  unchecked,  the  liberality  of  the  United  States 
towards  the  immigrant  had  so  often  been  abused.  By  active 
proceedings  it  has  given  new  life  to  the  eight  hour  labor  and 
contract  labor  provisions  of  the  Federal  statutes.  It  has 
enforced  the  ordinary  laws  and  conducted  the  ordinary  legal 
business  of  the  Government  faithfully  and  effectively. 

In  the  Departments  of  the  Interior  and  Agriculture  a  new 
era  has  been  inaugurated,  of  protection,  preservation,  and 
enlargement  of  the  natural  wealth  of  the  United  States. 


234  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

The  reclamation  of  the  arid  lands  of  the  West  by  irrigation 
was  provided  for  by  the  act  of  the  Republican  Congress  of 
June  17, 1902,  a  fitting  supplement  to  that  other  great  Repub- 
lican measure,  the  homestead  law.  Under  that  act  more 
than  25,000,000  acres  of  desert  lands  are  being  rapidly  con- 
verted into  fruitful  farms,  without  entailing  the  ultimate 
cost  of  a  dollar  to  the  national  treasury.  Twenty-five  irriga- 
tion projects  are  under  construction.  On  the  first  of  January 
last,  1,881  miles  of  canals  had  been  dug;  281  great  dams  and 
other  large  structures  for  the  storage  and  utilization  of  water 
had  been  built;  42,447,000  cubic  yards  of  earth  and  rock  had 
been  excavated;  thirteen  and  a  half  miles  of  tunnels  had  been 
driven,  and  already,  with  practically  all  of  the  projects  still 
uncompleted,  eight  new  towns  have  been  established  and 
over  fourteen  thousand  of  our  people  have  made  new  homes 
on  the  reclaimed  land. 

The  forest  policy  of  Republican  administration  under  the 
Department  of  Agriculture  has  been  far  in  advance  of  the 
general  public  appreciation  of  its  importance.  Over  166,- 
000,000  acres  of  public  forest  land  have  been  placed  under 
the  administration  of  the  forest  service,  and  by  strict  and  well 
organized  supervision  are  preserved  from  spoliation  and  from 
fire  as  great  reservoirs  of  water  supply  for  the  interests  of 
navigation,  irrigation,  power,  and  domestic  use.  The  forests 
are  not  only  preserved,  but  they  are  used  for  grazing  where 
they  can  be  grazed  without  injury,  and  for  cutting  the  ripe 
timber  that  can  be  cut  without  injury.  The  cost  of  super- 
vision, protection,  and  utilization  has  risen  as  the  area  set 
aside  has  increased,  from  $350,000  in  1904  to  $1,790,678.79 
in  1907,  but  the  receipts  from  the  sale  of  timber  and  grazing 
have  risen  from  $58,436.19  in  1904  to  $1,571,059.44  in 
1907,  so  that  the  service  is  already  almost  self-supporting. 
Sixty-seven  million  acres  of  public  lands  underlaid  by  coal 
which  under  former  practices  would  have  been  sold  at  a  small 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1908  235 

minimum  price,  and,  too  often,  have  been  taken  up  by  fraudu- 
lent entries  as  agricultural  lands  for  the  benefit  of  some  cor- 
poration or  syndicate,  have  been  withdrawn  from  entry. 
Fifty  million  acres  of  the  lands  thus  withdrawn  have  been 
examined  and  valued  by  the  Geological  Survey,  and  restored 
to  public  purchase  as  coal  lands  at  a  true  and  reasonable 
valuation.  At  fifteen  hundred  stations  throughout  the 
United  States  the  flow  of  streams  has  been  gauged  and  a 
knowledge  of  their  flood  and  low  stages  and  average  discharge 
has  been  obtained  through  the  Geological  Survey.  These 
investigations  have  shown  where  millions  of  wasted  horse- 
power can  be  utilized,  and  at  the  same  time  destructive  floods 
controlled  and  an  equal  flow  of  water  preserved  for  the  uses 
of  navigation  in  the  East  and  irrigation  in  the  West. 

The  grazing  lands  of  the  public  domain  had  been  greatly 
encroached  upon  by  the  great  cattle  owners,  and  during  the 
past  five  years  fences  unlawfully  enclosing  public  lands  have 
been  removed  from  3,518,583  acres  and  action  has  been  taken 
to  remove  such  enclosures  from  an  additional  3,763,186  acres. 
During  the  past  eight  years  over  a  million  dollars  have  been 
collected  by  the  Departments  of  the  Interior  and  of  Justice 
in  penalties  for  timber  trespasses.  For  all  sorts  of  offenses 
aimed  at  the  public  domain  during  that  period  over  three 
thousand  indictments  have  been  found;  over  870  convictions 
have  been  had  and  over  250  prison  sentences  have  been  im- 
posed. Within  the  same  period  7,874  fraudulent  land  entries 
have  been  cancelled,  restoring  to  public  entry  over  2,259,840 
acres.  Government  initiative  and  Government  activity  in 
the  conservation  of  our  national  resources  have  awakened  the 
whole  country  to  a  sense  of  the  wastefulness  which  has 
depleted  our  wealth  in  the  past  and  the  necessity  of  economy 
in  the  future. 

In  the  meantime  the  Department  of  Agriculture  is  increas- 
ing the  value  of  every  acre  of  land  by  scientific  researches 


236  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

and  experiments  and  practical  instruction  which  are  teaching 
our  people  to  make  their  land  more  productive  and  to  combat 
the  enemies  of  animal  and  plant  life.  Careful,  well  organized 
and  systematic  inspection  and  supervision  under  the  meat 
inspection  law  and  the  pure  food  law  of  1906,  have  restored 
the  credit  of  our  meat  products  and  are  protecting  our  people 
from  fraudulent  and  adulterated  foods. 

The  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor  has,  for  the  first 
time,  established  immediate  and  practical  cooperation  be- 
tween the  Government  and  the  organized  commercial  bodies 
of  the  country.  It  is  sifting  with  greater  efficiency  than  ever 
before,  under  the  recent  legislation  of  Congress,  the  crowds 
of  immigrants  who  come  to  our  ports,  and  excluding  crimi- 
nals, paupers,  the  diseased,  and  contract  laborers.  It  is 
bringing  publicity  into  the  workings  of  the  great  corporations. 
It  is  investigating  the  conditions  surrounding  woman  and 
child  labor  in  the  United  States.  It  is  keeping  the  producers 
and  merchants  of  the  country  constantly  fully  informed  as 
to  the  markets  and  trade  conditions  of  the  entire  world. 

All  of  these  Departments  are  performing  with  integrity 
and  efficiency  the  vast  mass  of  ordinary  duties  of  govern- 
ment devolving  upon  them,  those  duties  which  are  so  incon- 
spicuous and  unnoticed,  but  so  important  for  the  welfare  of 
the  country.  Search  where  you  may,  in  no  private  business, 
corporate  or  individual,  in  this  or  any  other  country,  can  be 
found  a  higher  standard  of  integrity,  fidelity,  and  competency 
than  exists  today  in  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
in  all  its  Departments. 

Our  country  has  not  lived  unto  itself  alone.  It  is  at  peace 
with  all  the  world,  but  it  is  not  the  peace  of  isolation.  We 
have  grown  so  great  that  we  are  touching  elbows  with  the 
people  of  every  other  country.  Our  vast  trade  seeks  every 
market;  our  millions  of  immigrants  maintain  ties  of  citizen- 
ship or  relationship  with  every  country;  our  travellers  throng 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1908  237 

every  foreign  highway.  We  could  not,  if  we  would,  escape 
from  the  responsibilities,  the  duties  and  the  opportunities,  of 
active  membership  in  the  community  of  nations.  On  that 
great  international  field  we  must  play  our  part,  whether  we 
will  or  no.  We  must  maintain  and  enlarge  our  trade;  we 
must  protect  our  citizens,  native  and  naturalized,  in  every 
right;  we  must  establish  and  maintain  a  strength  of  potential 
defense  which  shall  discourage  predatory  attacks  that  our 
wealth  would  otherwise  invite;  we  must  render  justice  to  all 
countries  and  to  their  people,  so  that  there  shall  be  no  just 
cause  for  assaults  upon  us;  we  must  promote  friendly  inter- 
course and  better  knowledge  between  our  people  and  all 
others,  so  that  there  shall  be  no  quarrels  born  of  misunder- 
standing. Beyond  all  this,  we  must  do  our  part  according  to 
the  measure  of  our  wealth  and  power,  to  promote  the  peace 
of  the  world,  to  encourage  and  to  aid  the  weak,  the  unfortu- 
nate and  the  undeveloped  peoples  of  mankind  along  the 
pathway  of  civilization,  and  to  spread  throughout  the  world 
the  ordered  liberty  and  justice  which  has  been  our  heritage. 

In  these  things  we  have  not  failed.  In  the  second  great 
Peace  Conference  at  The  Hague  the  American  representa- 
tives bore  their  part  of  useful  service  with  distinction,  and 
contributed  in  full  measure  to  the  results  of  the  Conference, 
which  constitute  one  of  the  greatest  advances  ever  made 
towards  the  reasonable  and  peaceable  regulation  of  interna- 
tional conduct.  Twelve  treaties  agreed  upon  at  that  Con- 
ference all  designed  to  reduce  the  probability  or  mitigate  the 
horrors  of  war  have  been  approved  by  the  Senate  and  ratified 
by  the  President. 

Following  the  Conference,  the  United  States  has  put  itself 
definitely  upon  the  basis  of  the  peaceful  settlement  of  inter- 
national disputes  by  concluding  general  treaties  of  arbitra- 
tion with  England,  France,  Spam,  Portugal,  the  Netherlands, 
Denmark,  Sweden,  Norway,  Switzerland,  Italy,  Mexico,  and 


238  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

Japan.  All  of  these  have  been  confirmed  by  the  Senate,  and 
many  others  are  in  course  of  negotiation. 

Threatened  tariff  wars  between  the  United  States  and 
Germany  and  the  United  States  and  France  have  been 
averted  by  commercial  agreements  under  the  power  con- 
ferred upon  the  President  in  the  third  section  of  the  Dingley 
tariff  act. 

The  long  unsettled  questions  with  Canada  have  been  car- 
ried far  along  the  way  towards  a  conclusion.  Under  one 
treaty  already  made  a  commission  is  disposing  of  the  last 
remaining  questions  of  doubt  and  dispute  along  our  three 
thousand  miles  of  boundary.  Under  another  treaty  a  com- 
mission is  framing  joint  international  regulations  for  the 
preservation  of  the  food  supply  in  the  Great  Lakes  and  other 
boundary  waters.  Under  a  third  treaty  we  have  agreed  upon 
the  submission  to  The  Hague  Tribunal  of  the  century-old 
controversies  relating  to  the  Newfoundland  fisheries,  while 
pending  this  arbitration,  from  year  to  year,  our  fishermen  are 
protected  in  their  rights  by  a  friendly  modus  vivendi. 

In  China  the  boycott  against  American  goods  caused  by 
Chinese  exclusion  has  been  abandoned,  and  China  is  herself 
giving  valuable  aid  towards  preventing  the  emigration  of  her 
coolies  to  America.  Under  authority  of  Congress  we  are 
about  remitting  all  the  punitive  part  of  the  indemnity  stipu- 
lated for  after  the  Boxer  rebellion,  and  the  Chinese  Govern- 
ment is  of  its  own  motion  formulating  a  plan  to  apply  the 
remitted  part  of  the  indemnity  to  the  sending  of  Chinese 
students  annually  to  be  educated  in  the  United  States. 

All  the  wild  outcries  of  the  sensational  press  at  home 
and  abroad  have  failed  to  destroy  the  good  understanding 
between  the  Governments  of  Japan  and  of  the  United  States. 
The  difficulties  which  arose  in  San  Francisco  have  been  dis- 
posed of.  The  two  Governments  are  actively  cooperating 
with  perfect  mutual  understanding  for  the  prevention  of 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1908  239 

Japanese  labor  immigration  into  the  United  States.  OUT 
treaty  of  arbitration  ratified  during  the  past  summer  was 
followed  by  a  treaty  for  the  mutual  protection  of  trade  marks, 
copyrights  and  patents  in  China.  On  the  special  invitation 
of  Japan  we  are  making  preparations  to  participate  on  a  scale 
which  we  have  never  before  attempted,  in  her  great  inter- 
national exposition  which  is  to  mark  the  fiftieth  anniversary 
of  the  accession  of  her  Emperor;  and  upon  the  special  invi- 
tation of  Japan  our  fleet  is  about  to  visit  the  harbor  of  Tokyo 
where  it  will  be  received  with  a  hospitality  not  marred  by  a 
single  discordant  note. 

Our  course  in  the  Pan  American  Conference  at  Rio  de 
Janeiro  in  1906  and  the  friendly  intercourse  which  has  fol- 
lowed have  dispelled  the  suspicion  and  distrust  with  which 
we  were  once  regarded  by  the  people  of  Latin  America,  and 
with  the  single  exception  of  the  irresponsible  and  abnormal 
dictator  of  Venezuela,  genuine  friendship  and  good-will 
bridge  the  gulf  of  race  and  language  between  ourselves  and 
every  people  of  the  western  hemisphere. 

Regarding  the  countries  about  the  Caribbean  Sea,  whose 
nearness  to  the  Panama  canal  route  makes  their  fortunes  of 
special  interest  to  us,  we  have  developed  and  followed  a 
definite  course  of  policy  which  may  be  described  by  saying, 
"  We  do  not  wish  to  take  possession  of  any  of  those  countries 
ourselves;  we  are  not  willing  to  have  any  other  foreign  nation 
take  possession  of  them;  and  to  prevent  the  necessity  of  the 
one  or  the  possibility  of  the  other,  we  do  wish  to  help  them 
govern  themselves  hi  peace  and  order  and  prosperity." 

That  is  the  key  to  our  treatment  of  Cuba.  Under  that 
policy  we  have  made  a  treaty  with  San  Domingo  under 
which  the  presence  of  a  single  American  civil  officer,  as 
receiver  of  customs,  with  the  moral  power  of  the  United 
States  behind  him  to  demonstrate  the  hopelessness  of  any 
attempt  at  revolution,  has  substituted  uninterrupted  peace 


240  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

for  continuous  turmoil  and  bloodshed,  has  more  than  doubled 
the  Government  revenues,  has  brought  about  an  adjustment 
of  the  debt  and  a  restoration  of  solvency,  and  has  established 
a  revival  of  industry  and  of  commerce.  Under  the  same 
policy  we  have  been  collaborating  with  Mexico,  once  an 
enemy  and  now  a  close  and  valued  friend,  to  mitigate  the 
conditions  of  revolution  and  war  among  the  Central  Ameri- 
can states;  and  a  peace  conference  during  the  past  winter, 
under  the  guidance  of  the  two  greater  countries,  has  resulted 
in  a  series  of  treaties  and  the  establishment  of  an  interna- 
tional Central  American  court  for  the  settlement  of  dif- 
ferences —  substantial  advances  along  the  slow  and  difficult 
pathway  to  established  order. 

In  the  meantime  the  reorganization  of  our  consular  service 
and  the  practice  of  promotion  for  merit  in  the  diplomatic 
service  has  increased  the  efficiency  and  usefulness  of  all 
our  representatives  abroad.  We  contributed  substantially 
towards  maintaining  the  peace  of  Europe  in  the  Conference 
at  Algeciras,  and  the  greatest  war  of  modern  times  was  ended 
when  Japan  and  Russia  were  brought  together  under  the 
congenial  influence  of  American  conciliation  hi  the  Treaty 
of  Portsmouth. 

The  prosperity  and  well-being  of  our  people  as  a  whole 
correspond  to  the  efficiency  of  the  Government,  which  justly 
represents  them.  Never  anywhere  in  the  long  history  of 
mankind's  struggles  for  better  conditions,  has  there  been 
among  so  many  millions  of  people  so  great  a  diffusion  of 
wealth,  such  universal  comfort  of  living,  such  ready  rewards 
for  industry  and  enterprise,  such  unlimited  opportunities  for 
education  and  individual  advancement  and  such  indepen- 
dence and  dignity  of  manhood  as  in  our  country  now. 

We  are  all  familiar  with  the  amazing  statistics  that  mark 
our  prosperity.  Our  foreign  trade  last  year  amounted  to 
$3,315,272,503.  The  balance  of  trade  in  our  favor  last  year 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1908  241 

was  $446,429,653,  and  in  the  last  four  years  it  has  amounted 
to  $1,825,520,202.  The  value  of  our  farm  products  last  year 
was  $3,958,000,000.  According  to  the  last  census  there  were 
5,739,657  separate  farms,  and  the  live  stock  upon  those 
farms  is  valued  at  $4,331,230,000.  The  value  of  our  manu- 
factured products  in  1905  amounted  to  $16,866,703,985. 
Our  bank  deposits  of  all  kinds  last  year  amounted  to  $13,077,- 
330,466.  There  were  last  year  in  the  United  States  8,588,- 
811  savings  bank  depositors,  with  an  aggregate  deposit  of 
$3,495,410,087.  During  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1906, 
there  were  instructed  in  the  schools  of  the  United  States 
18,434,847  scholars,  and  of  these  210,333  were  students  in 
universities,  colleges,  professional  and  technical  schools. 
Churches  and  hospitals  and  libraries  abound.  Associations 
for  mutual  aid  and  for  public  benefit  number  their  members 
and  their  revenues  by  millions.  Our  people  are  keenly  alive 
to  the  public  interest  and  competent  for  the  discussion  of 
public  questions.  Expression  of  opinion  is  free  as  the  air  we 
breathe.  Respect  for  law  is  general;  disregard  of  it  is  the 
rare  exception.  At  no  time  and  in  no  country  has  mere 
wealth  secured  for  its  possessor  less  public  consideration  or 
have  the  high  qualities  of  personal  manhood  availed  so  much 
for  honor  and  opportunity. 

Government  did  not  make  these  conditions,  but  they 
would  have  been  impossible  without  wise  and  good  govern- 
ment, and  wise  and  good  government  is  necessary  to  their 
continuance.  Let  us  all  put  our  shoulders  to  the  wheel  of 
reform.  Let  us  press  along  in  the  path  of  progress,  constantly 
improving  conditions  and  leaving  no  class  or  condition  of 
men  who  do  not  share  in  the  improvement;  but  let  us  not 
forget  that  true  reform  proceeds,  not  by  overturning  or 
destroying  in  order  to  substitute  the  conjectural  future  of 
sanguine  theory,  but  always  by  building  steadily  and  surely 
on  the  safe  foundations  of  all  that  is  good  in  the  present. 


242  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

Wisdom,  skill,  experience  in  the  operations  of  government, 
practical  capacity  combined  with  honest  purpose  are  neces- 
sary to  make  true  reform  effective.  Without  these,  declara- 
tions and  public  speeches,  however  eloquent,  and  proposals, 
however  attractive,  are  mere  words  and  will  never  be  realized. 
The  substantial  question  for  the  voters  to  answer  in  Novem- 
ber is,  how  shall  we  secure  a  continuance  of  the  good  govern- 
ment under  which  we  have  attained  to  all  our  blessings;  how 
select  public  agents  who  will  maintain  the  peace  and  order 
and  prosperity  we  now  have;  and  at  the  same  time  press 
forward  and  make  practically  effective  the  reforms  which  this 
Republican  Administration  has  inaugurated,  and  upon  the 
value  and  beneficence  of  which  all  parties  are  agreed. 

Plainly  the  true  successor  to  this  great  duty  is  Secretary 
Taft.  His  wise  experience  and  long  years  of  successful  ser- 
vice under  heavy  responsibilities  as  jurist,  legislator,  admin- 
istrator, his  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  public  affairs 
of  our  country,  internal  and  external,  prove  his  wisdom,  his 
skill,  and  his  capacity.  The  confidence  and  sympathy  and 
intimate  association  with  which  he  has  stood  by  and  aided 
President  Roosevelt  in  every  stage  of  the  policies  which  by 
the  common  consent  of  both  parties  now  lie  before  us  to  be 
continued  and  developed  in  practical  effectiveness,  indicate 
him  as  the  best  possible  man  to  continue  those  policies.  The 
character  that  we  know  so  well,  with  its  courage,  firmness, 
and  energy,  its  unselfishness,  modesty,  frankness,  and  honor 
assures  us  of  his  honest  purpose  and  his  eminent  fitness  for  the 
greatest  of  offices. 

The  Democratic  party  announces  as  the  issue  of  this  cam- 
paign upon  which  it  asks  the  voters  of  the  country  to  take 
the  powers  of  administration  and  legislation  away  from  the 
party  that  has  thus  proved  its  competency,  and  to  embark 
upon  the  experiment  of  Democratic  control  —  as  "  the 
overshadowing  issue  "  the  question  "  Shall  the  people  rule  ?  " 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1908  243 

Do  not  the  people  rule  ?  This  is  a  representative  govern- 
ment. It  surely  is  not  proposed  to  do  away  with  representa- 
tion and  have  eighty-five  millions  of  people  make  and  execute 
their  laws  directly,  without  the  intervention  of  legislative  and 
executive  agents.  Are  not  the  laws  being  made  and  executed 
by  the  agents  whom  the  people  have  selected  for  that  pur- 
pose ?  I  find  that  by  the  lawful  returns  of  the  last  presi- 
dential election  Theodore  Roosevelt  received  2,541,296  more 
votes  for  the  Presidency  than  Alton  B.  Parker.  Has  he  not 
a  good  title  to  the  office  ?  Are  not  the  people  ruling  through 
him,  their  chosen  Executive,  so  far  as  his  part  of  the  govern- 
ment is  concerned  ?  Has  not  every  congressional  district 
been  represented  in  Congress  by  the  man  whom  a  majority 
of  its  voters  selected  ?  Is  not  every  state  represented  hi  the 
Senate  by  Senators  chosen  by  its  own  legislature,  selected 
by  the  people  of  the  state  for  tjie  performance  of  that  very 
duty? 

But  Mr.  Bryan  gives  specifications.  He  says  there  are 
three  reasons  why  the  people  do  not  rule. 

First,  because  there  is  corrupt  use  of  money  at  elections. 
Does  he  mean  to  say  that  the  two  millions  and  a  half  of  votes 
which  constituted  Mr.  Roosevelt's  majority  were  bought; 
that  to  such  a  frightful  extent  the  American  electorate  is 
venal  ?  Does  he  produce  any  evidence  of  such  a  charge  ? 
Not  the  slightest.  Does  he  produce  any  facts  tending  to 
sustain  even  a  suspicion  of  the  justice  of  such  a  charge  ? 
None  whatever.  For  one,  I  deny  its  truth,  and  I  assert  that 
American  elections  are  fair  and  honest  elections,  and  that  the 
Government  in  Washington  has  been  wielding  the  powers 
vested  in  it  under  the  Constitution  by  the  clear  and  unques- 
tionable will  of  the  people  of  the  United  States.  Campaign 
funds  were  raised  and  used  in  the  last  election  by  both  parties, 
as  they  ought  to  have  been  raised  and  used.  Mr.  Bryan's 
managers  are  appealing  for  contributions  of  campaign  funds 


244  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

today.  The  universal  and  intelligent  discussion  of  great 
questions  of  public  policy  by  the  American  people  during  a 
presidential  campaign  is  the  most  useful  and  the  most  hope- 
inspiring  school  of  government  in  the  world.  It  is  that  which 
makes  the  people  ever  more  competent  to  govern  justly  and 
wisely.  No  money  expended  to  promote  that  great  exercise 
of  governing  intelligence  is  ill-spent;  and  to  furnish  eighty- 
five  million  people  with  material  for  discussion,  to  reach 
them  with  information  and  argument  and  refutation  of 
argument,  and  appeals,  through  public  speech  and  through 
the  mails  and  private  canvass,  requires  organization,  the 
labor  of  thousands  of  men  and  the  expenditure  of  great  sums. 
The  repetition  of  small  expenses  among  a  great  multitude  of 
people  spread  over  a  vast  territory  mounts  up  with  a  rapidity 
difficult  to  realize.  The  postage  on  a  single  letter  mailed  to 
each  of  the  fourteen  million  voters  of  the  country  amounts 
to  $280,000.  To  such  proper  and  useful  purposes  and  to  such 
purposes  only  was  the  Republican  campaign  fund  of  the  last 
election  devoted. 

The  second  reason  why  Mr.  Bryan  says  the  people  do  not 
rule  is  that  we  have  not  direct  election  of  Senators,  and  he 
holds  the  Republican  party  responsible  for  not  having  pro- 
cured an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  to  provide  for  that.  There  is  no  more  necessity  for  an 
amendment  to  the  Constitution  providing  for  the  direct 
election  of  Senators  than  there  is  for  an  amendment  to  the 
Constitution  providing  for  the  direct  election  of  President. 
If  the  people  of  any  state  wish  any  particular  man  to  be 
chosen  as  Senator,  they  have  only  to  instruct  their  legisla- 
ture, as  the  people  of  a  considerable  number  of  states  make 
it  their  practice  to  do  now,  and  no  legislature  will  ever  for  a 
moment  think  of  disobeying  the  instructions  any  more  than 
presidential  electors  violate  their  obligations.  The  proposed 
amendment  is  simply  to  enable  the  people  of  each  state  to 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1908  245 

escape  from  the  performance  of  the  duty  of  electing  a  legis- 
lature that  can  be  trusted.  Are  we  prepared  to  abandon  the 
performance  of  that  duty  ?  Are  we  to  assume  that  our  state 
legislatures  must  necessarily  and  for  all  time  be  unfit  to 
represent  the  people  of  the  state  ?  If  so,  what  becomes  of 
the  government  of  the  state  ?  Is  that  with  all  its  multitude 
of  important  duties  to  be  left  unfit  ?  If  any  state  legislature 
cannot  now  be  trusted,  the  true  reform  would  seem  to  be  in 
the  direction  of  selecting  the  legislature. 

Speaking  for  myself  alone,  I  believe  that  the  selection  of 
legislative  candidates  by  direct  primaries  would  be  a  mate- 
rial improvement,  and  would  greatly  increase  the  sense  of 
immediate  responsibility  to  their  constituents  on  the  part  of 
the  members  of  the  state  legislatures.  In  such  primaries  the 
voters  could  instruct  their  candidates  if  they  saw  fit  and  as 
they  saw  fit,  regarding  the  selection  of  Senators.  But  that 
is  a  question  the  people  of  each  state  can  settle  for  themselves 
without  any  amendment  of  the  Constitution,  and  however 
they  settle  it,  they  rule  in  the  way  they  prefer  to  rule.  If  any 
legislature  under  the  Constitution  does  not  choose  a  Senator 
who  properly  represents  the  people  of  the  state,  it  is  because 
the  people  of  the  state  have  failed  in  their  duty  in  the  selec- 
tion of  their  legislature.  Let  them  perform  their  duty  under 
the  Constitution  as  it  is,  rather  than  clamor  for  an  amendment 
to  the  Constitution  to  enable  them  to  escape  that  duty.  In 
the  long  run,  to  secure  good  government  we  must  ultimately 
come  down  to  the  faithful  performance  of  duty  by  the  people 
of  the  country  at  the  polls,  and  no  expedient  or  change  of 
form  will  take  the  place  of  that  performance. 

The  third  reason  why  the  people  do  not  rule,  says  Mr. 
Bryan,  is  to  be  found  in  the  rules  of  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives. The  Denver  convention  declared  in  its  platform 
that  it  "  observed  with  amazement  the  popular  branch  of  our 
Federal  Government  helpless  to  obtain  either  the  considera- 


246  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

tion  or  enactment  of  measures  desired  by  a  majority  of  its 
members."  Who  makes  the  rules  of  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives ?  Why,  a  majority  of  its  members,  and  a  majority 
can  change  them  as  it  will.  Manifestly,  there  must  be  rules 
to  control  the  conduct  of  the  business  of  the  House,  or  no 
business  could  be  done.  Over  thirty  thousand  bills  were 
introduced  in  the  last  session  of  Congress,  and  there  are  three 
hundred  and  eighty-six  members.  If  one- tenth  of  the  mem- 
bers had  attempted  to  speak  five  minutes  each  on  one-tenth 
of  the  bills  that  were  introduced,  working  eight  hours  a  day 
for  the  average  legislative  session  and  permitting  the  trans- 
action of  no  other  business,  they  would  have  been  speaking 
still,  and  the  term  of  office  of  the  entire  Congress  would  expire 
before  one-fourth  of  the  one-tenth  could  be  heard.  Plainly 
there  must  be  rules  to  limit  oratory,  to  provide  for  the  selec- 
tion of  the  measures  which  shall  come  up  for  discussion,  and 
to  provide  for  the  transaction  of  the  real  business  of  legisla- 
tion. All  legislative  bodies  have  to  adopt  such  rules,  and  the 
larger  the  body  the  more  necessary  are  the  rules  and  the  more 
stringent  they  have  to  be.  It  is  an  invariable  incident  to  the 
transaction  of  all  legislative  business  that  from  time  to  time 
members  who  are  not  allowed  to  talk  as  long  and  as  often  as 
they  please  to  the  exclusion  of  others,  and  who  cannot  have 
the  measure  they  are  particularly  interested  in  acted  upon  in 
preference  to  other  measures,  rise  up  and  cry  out  against  the 
rules,  as  the  Democrats  are  crying  out  against  them  now. 
The  real  trouble  is  that  the  Democrats  in  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives are  a  minority  and  cannot  have  their  own  way 
because  they  are  a  minority.  The  real  Democratic  grievance 
is,  not  that  the  majority  does  not  rule,  but  that  it  does  rule. 
The  rules  at  present  in  force  in  the  House  of  Representatives 
are  those  adopted  under  Speaker  Reed  when  the  Democratic 
members  of  the  House  had  stopped  all  public  business  by 
refusing  to  answer  to  their  names  and  insisting  that  unless 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1908  247 

they  answered,  although  personally  present,  they  could  not 
be  counted  as  making  up  a  quorum.  The  amazement  with 
which  the  Democratic  party  observes  that  those  rules  are 
still  in  force  must  be  greatly  increased  by  the  knowledge  of 
the  fact  that  the  same  rules  were  continued  and  enforced  by 
the  Democratic  House  under  the  Democratic  speaker,  Mr. 
Crisp,  when  they  succeeded  to  the  Republican  House  over 
which  Mr.  Reed  presided. 

Consideration  of  the  paramount  issue  now  proposed  by  the 
Democracy,  "  Shall  the  people  rule  ?  ",  forces  the  conclusion 
that  the  draftsmen  of  the  Democratic  platform  are  to  be 
acquitted  of  the  offense  of  insulting  the  intelligence  of  the 
American  people  by  a  piece  of  cheap  buncombe,  only  because 
they  have  fallen  into  the  confusion  which  beset  the  three 
tailors  of  Tooley  Street,  who  began  their  proclamation  "  We 
the  people  of  England  ",  and  that  they  think  the  people  do 
not  rule  because  they  do  not  themselves  rule. 

The  Democratic  platform  assails  the  Republican  National 
Administration  for  the  increase  in  the  number  of  office- 
holders and  the  great  expenditures  of  the  Government,  which 
the  platform  characterizes  as  extravagant.  It  demands  that 
the  National  Government  shall  do  a  great  variety  of  things 
which  can  be  done  only  through  the  employment  of  numerous 
agents  and  the  expenditure  of  great  sums  of  money,  but  it 
declares  the  employment  of  the  agents  and  the  expenditure 
of  the  money  to  be  unjustifiable  and  extravagant.  It  gives 
specifically  the  number  of  office-holders  added  and  the  num- 
ber of  million  dollars  expended,  but  is  silent  as  to  the  work 
that  has  been  accomplished.  In  the  numbers  so  given  by  the 
Democratic  platform  are  included  the  carriers  who  deliver 
the  mails  upon  the  thirty-nine  thousand  rural  free  delivery 
routes.  Would  the  Democratic  party  discharge  them  from 
office  and  stop  the  rural  free  delivery  ?  If  not,  is  it  honest 
for  its  platform  to  invite  the  condemnation  of  the  people  for 


248  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

the  addition  of  these  thirty-nine  thousand  letter-carriers 
without  disclosing  what  they  were  for  ?  The  increase  of 
expense  which  it  declares  to  be  extravagant  includes  the 
cost  of  the  Panama  Canal.  Would  it  stop  work  on  the 
Canal  ?  If  not,  is  it  honest  to  include  that  cost  in  the  figures 
of  added  expense  which  it  calls  extravagance  and  not  dis- 
close the  purpose  for  which  the  expense  was  added  ?  The 
employment  of  agents  and  the  expenditure  of  money  made 
necessary  in  the  prosecution  of  trusts,  the  regulation  of  rail- 
roads, the  prevention  of  rebates,  the  restoration  of  public 
lands,  the  conservation  of  natural  resources,  the  regulation 
of  immigration  and  of  naturalization,  the  improvement  of 
agriculture,  the  upbuilding  of  the  navy,  the  extension  of  our 
foreign  trade,  all  the  vast  activities  of  the  National  Govern- 
ment along  the  very  lines  that  the  Democratic  party  is 
insisting  upon,  are  included  in  these  figures  which  the  Demo- 
cratic platform  charges  as  extravagance  without  one  word  to 
indicate  what  is  the  fact,  that  full  and  necessary  service  was 
rendered  by  every  additional  officer  and  full  value  received 
for  every  dollar.  The  expenditures  of  the  present  Republican 
Administration  have  been  well  within  the  means  of  the 
country,  and  there  remains  to  it  in  the  Treasury  a  surplus 
of  revenues  collected  during  this  Administration  over  and 
above  the  expenditures.  Every  additional  office-holder 
employed  and  every  dollar  of  increase  of  expenditure  have 
been  authorized  by  the  direct  representatives  of  the  people 
of  the  United  States  in  Congress  as  being  wise  expenditure  in 
the  public  interest.  Every  dollar  has  been  honestly  expended 
in  accordance  with  that  authority,  and  hi  charging  extrava- 
gance by  a  mere  statement  of  the  amount  expended  and  the 
number  of  officers  employed,  without  any  reference  to  what 
was  accomplished,  the  Democratic  party  must  stand  con- 
victed of  an  attempt  to  mislead  the  people  of  .the  United 
States  by  the  mere  force  of  large  figures. 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1908  249 

The  Democratic  platform  charges  also  that  the  action  of 
the  present  Chief  Executive  in  using  the  patronage  of  his 
high  office  to  secure  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Taft  to  the  Presi- 
dency is  "  a  violation  of  the  spirit  of  our  institutions."  Is 
there  a  man  of  full  age  in  the  United  States  who  does  not 
know  that  the  power  which  Mr.  Roosevelt  brought  to  the 
support  of  Mr.  Taft's  candidacy  was  not  patronage  but  his 
extraordinary  and  phenomenal  popularity  and  leadership 
among  the  masses  of  the  people  of  the  country,  a  popularity 
of  which  Mr.  Bryan  is  now  attempting  to  secure  the  benefit 
by  declaring  himself  Mr.  Roosevelt's  natural  successor  ?  Is 
there  one  who  does  not  know  that  if  Mr.  Roosevelt  had 
desired  to  perpetuate  his  power,  he  could  have  been  nomi- 
nated by  raising  his  finger,  and  that  his  advocacy  of  Mr. 
Taft's  nomination  was  because  it  was  necessary  for  him  to 
secure  the  nomination  of  some  one  in  order  to  prevent  his 
own  nomination  ?  Is  there  one  who  does  not  believe  in  his 
heart  of  hearts  that  the  selection  of  Mr.  Taft  by  Mr.  Roose- 
velt as  his  candidate  for  the  Presidency  at  the  very  moment 
when  he  himself  was  thrusting  aside  the  Presidency,  was 
with  the  honest  purpose  to  secure  the  best  possible  adminis- 
trator of  the  great  policies  that  were  dear  to  his  heart  ?  Is 
it  to  a  dishonest  purpose  that  Mr.  Bryan  claims  to  be  the 
heir,  and  is  it  possible  to  ascribe  a  desire  to  perpetuate  per- 
sonal power  to  the  man  who  held  the  highest  power  in  his 
grasp  and  rejected  it  ? 

It  is  but  a  short  time  since  these  same  voices  of  detraction 
were  charging  the  President  with  the  purpose  of  usurping 
supreme  and  perpetual  authority  for  himself.  Yet  he  has 
proved  himself  capable  of  a  renunciation  of  power  excep- 
tional in  history,  and  has  contributed  to  our  system  of 
government  a  precedent  which  forever  sets  a  limit  upon  the 
continuance  of  the  presidential  office.  It  is  but  a  short  time 
since  these  same  voices  were  heard  declaring  that  the  Presi- 


250  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

dent's  character  was  so  rashly  belligerent  that  his  Presidency 
would  involve  the  country  in  certain  war.  Yet  he  has  proved 
to  be  the  greatest  peacemaker  of  his  generation. 

Mr.  Bryan  charges  that  the  Republican  party  is  respon- 
sible for  the  abuses  of  corporate  wealth.  As  well  might  he 
charge  that  the  man  who  plants  cotton  is  responsible  for  the 
boll  weevil,  or  that  the  man  who  plants  fruit  trees  is  respon- 
sible for  the  San  Jose  scale.  Until  the  millennium  has  brought 
the  eradication  of  human  selfishness  and  greed,  social  abuses 
will  come  according  to  the  shifting  conditions  of  the  times. 
Adversity  and  prosperity,  wealth  and  poverty  have  each  their 
own  kinds  of  abuse.  Constant  vigilance  and  constant  activ- 
ity to  meet  and  put  an  end  to  abuses  as  they  arise  is  the 
task  of  government  and  of  good  citizenship;  but  the  work  is 
never  finished.  The  Republican  party  has  produced  the 
conditions  which  have  made  our  great  prosperity  possible, 
and  it  is  dealing  with  the  evils  which  have  been  incident  to 
that  prosperity  with  vigor  and  effectiveness. 

There  are  two  substantial  proposals  made  by  the  Demo- 
cratic party  as  to  the  policy  which  it  will  follow  if  it  is  brought 
into  power. 

One  is  that  it  will  wipe  out  the  protective  tariff  and  sub- 
stitute a  tariff  for  revenue  only.  I  shall  not  discuss  that 
proposition,  but  it  ought  not  to  be  forgotten.  The  eleven 
years  which  have  passed  since  the  Dingley  tariff  was  enacted 
have  brought  about  many  changes  in  the  conditions  to 
which  the  tariff  law  is  applied.  Many  of  these  changes  have 
resulted  from  the  very  prosperity  which  the  protection 
afforded  by  the  tariff  has  produced.  In  the  nature  of  things, 
such  changes  must  occur,  and  from  tune  to  tune  every  tariff 
must  be  revised  and  adapted  to  the  new  conditions.  As  the 
period  of  revision,  however,  is  always  one  of  uncertainty  and 
a  consequent  injury  to  business,  revisions  ought  not  to  be 
made  too  often,  or  upon  slight  grounds.  The  Republican 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1908  251 

party  has  not  considered  that  sufficient  grounds  for  thus 
disturbing  business  have  existed  heretofore.  It  considers 
that  sufficient  grounds  do  now  exist  and  it  has  pledged  itself 
immediately  after  the  fourth  of  March  next  to  devote  an 
extraordinary  session  of  Congress  to  making  such  a  revision 
in  accordance  with  the  true  principles  of  protection.  One  of 
the  questions  that  must  be  determined  by  the  coming  elec- 
tion is  whether  we  shall  have  such  a  revision,  or  whether  we 
shall  have  the  principle  of  protection  abandoned  and  a  new 
tariff  enacted  in  accordance  with  the  principles  of  free  trade, 
and  containing  only  such  duties  as  are  necessary  to  raise 
revenue  for  the  support  of  the  Government  without  any 
protective  purpose. 

The  last  time  the  Democratic  party  was  in  power  it 
attempted  such  a  change  of  policy  and  the  result  was  the  Wil- 
son-Gorman tariff  of  1893.  The  very  threat  of  such  a  pro- 
ceeding at  that  time  stopped  business,  closed  the  mills,  threw 
millions  of  men  out  of  employment  and  was  accompanied  by 
universal  business  depression  and  disaster.  Are  we  ready  to 
repeat  that  experience  now,  as  we  surely  shall  if  we  put  the 
Democratic  party  in  power  ? 

The  other  proposition  of  the  Democratic  platform  is  to 
require  all  national  banks  to  guarantee  the  payment  of 
deposits  by  all  other  national  banks.  This  is  another  patent 
financial  nostrum,  advertised  to  catch  the  fancy  of  the  multi- 
tude; and  it  should  be  suppressed  under  the  pure  food  law 
until  it  is  correctly  labelled,  "  a  measure  to  compel  legitimate 
business  to  bear  the  risks  of  speculation."  It  might  well  be 
called  a  measure  to  destroy  the  national  banking  system,  for 
who  will  wish  to  invest  his  money  in  a  business  where  it  is  not 
merely  subject  to  the  risks  assumed  by  the  men  whom  he  and 
his  associates  select  to  manage  it,  but  is  subject  also  to  be 
called  upon  for  the  payment  of  an  unlimited  amount  of 
debts  of  an  indefinite  number  of  persons  over  whom  and 


252  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

whose  obligations  he  and  his  associates  have  no  control 
whatever  ? 

A  bank  deposit  is  a  very  simple  business  transaction.  The 
depositor  hi  effect  loans  his  money  to  the  bank,  which  bor- 
rows it  upon  a  promise  to  repay  it  on  the  lender's  order,  with 
or  without  a  stipulated  interest.  Banks  seldom  fail  to  pay 
the  debts  thus  contracted.  Although  the  deposits  are  ordi- 
narily many  times  the  capital,  losses  are  exceedingly  small. 
The  principal  reason  why  this  is  so  is  that  bankers  are 
ordinarily  men  who  have  established  a  good  reputation  in  the 
community  for  honesty  and  business  sense.  People  ordinarily 
will  not  risk  then*  money  by  lending  it  to  men  who  have  not 
these  claims  to  confidence.  Under  the  law  any  one  who  can 
furnish  $25,000  can  start  a  bank,  but  in  practice,  as  a  rule 
no  one  can  start  a  bank  who  cannot  also  furnish  a  character 
which  leads  the  community  to  trust  him  and  deposit  their 
money  with  him.  If,  however,  the  sound  and  honest  banks 
of  the  country  guarantee  the  debts  of  every  bank,  a  well 
earned  reputation  for  honesty  and  business  judgment  will 
no  longer  be  necessary  as  a  part  of  the  banker's  capital.  It 
will  no  longer  be  necessary  for  the  community  to  consider 
whether  a  banker  is  honest  or  not.  Any  scalawag  can  start 
a  bank  and  obtain  deposits  on  the  credit  of  all  the  banks  of 
the  country.  Any  one  who  wishes  to  use  funds  in  speculative 
enterprises  can  start  a  bank,  invite  deposits  and  thus  borrow 
money  on  the  credit  of  the  entire  banking  capital  of  the 
United  States.  With  such  opportunities  who  can  doubt  that 
the  standard  of  character  of  the  bankers  of  the  country  would 
deteriorate  and  the  use  of  banking  funds  for  speculative 
enterprises  would  increase  and  that  the  losses  which  the 
honest  bankers  would  be  required  to  make  good  would 
increase  correspondingly  ? 

This  burden  would  fall  not  merely  upon  the  stockholders 
of  the  banks,  but  upon  the  depositors  also.  Much  banking 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1908  253 

capital  would  inevitably  be  driven  out  of  the  business  and 
such  as  remained  would  have  to  make  good  its  losses  by 
reducing  the  rate  of  interest  to  its  depositors  and  increasing 
the  rate  of  interest  upon  loans.  The  profits  of  the  banking 
business,  like  those  of  the  merchant,  the  manufacturer,  and 
the  farmer,  depend  upon  good  management.  The  attempt  to 
make  all  the  profits  of  good  management  bear  all  the  losses 
of  bad  management  is  a  step  in  the  socialistic  process  which 
would  level  all  distinctions  between  thrift,  enterprise,  and 
sound  judgment  on  the  one  hand,  and  recklessness,  incapacity, 
and  failure  on  the  other. 

Except  for  campaign  purposes  there  is  no  occasion  for  any 
such  scheme.  The  business  men  of  the  country  need  no 
guarantee  of  bank  deposits.  They  know  with  whom  they  are 
dealing  when  they  select  a  bank  for  deposits,  and  their  intel- 
ligence and  knowledge  of  affairs  are  amply  sufficient  for  their 
own  protection  in  making  the  selection.  The  wage-earners 
of  the  country,  the  multitude  of  people  of  small  savings,  not 
familiar  with  business,  so  far  as  they  live  in  places  where 
there  are  savings  banks,  have  practically  perfect  safety  for 
their  deposits,  and  over  eight  and  a  half  millions  of  them  are 
enjoying  that  safety  now  with  a  good  rate  of  interest.  For 
them  if  they  prefer  it,  and  for  all  those  who  live  in  places 
which  are  not  accessible  to  savings  banks,  the  Republican 
party  proposes  that  the  Government  shall  furnish  absolute 
security  through  a  postal  savings  bank,  so  that  the  wage- 
earner  can  deposit  his  savings  at  the  nearest  post-office  and 
have  the  guarantee  of  the  Government  that  it  shall  be 
returned;  but  that  guarantee  will  be  accompanied  by  the 
possession  and  control  of  the  money  itself,  so  that  neither  the 
depositor  nor  the  Government  can  lose.  This  simple  supple- 
ment to  the  banking  and  savings  bank  system  meets  every 
requirement,  and,  unlike  the  Democratic  proposal,  it  has 
been  proved  safe  and  practicable  by  the  experience  of  many 


254  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

countries  and  it  violates  no  principle  of  sound  finance  or  of 
common  sense. 

What  evidence  of  Democratic  fitness  to  be  entrusted  with 
power  is  to  be  found  in  the  record  of  its  candidate  for  the 
Presidency  ?  It  is  with  profound  satisfaction  that  we  recog- 
nize the  purity  and  uprightness  of  Mr.  Bryan's  character, 
and  we  cannot  withhold  our  admiration  from  the  skill  and 
attractiveness  of  his  oratory;  but  when  a  candidate  for  high 
office  can  furnish  no  evidence  of  fitness  derived  from  the 
actual  performance  of  official  duty,  and  relies  entirely  upon 
what  he  proposes  to  do  in  the  future,  we  must  test,  so  far  as 
we  can,  the  soundness  of  his  judgment  by  the  substance  of  his 
proposals,  not  by  his  manner  of  presenting  them.  It  was 
skillful  for  Mr.  Bryan  to  say  that  he  is  bound  by  the  omis- 
sions of  the  Democratic  platform  as  well  as  by  what  it 
contains;  but  who  dictated  the  omissions  as  well  as  the  plat- 
form ?  Can  an  omission  of  today  wipe  out  public  utterances 
of  the  past  and  remove  them  from  memory  as  a  basis  for 
judgment  upon  the  public  man  ?  The  same  eloquent  voice 
which  now  with  so  much  confidence  is  telling  us  how  the 
Government  ought  to  be  conducted  was  heard  in  Mr.  Bryan's 
candidacy  of  1896  urging  upon  the  American  people  as  the 
panacea  for  all  evils  and  an  absolute  necessity  for  our  pros- 
perity, the  free  and  unlimited  coinage  of  silver  at  the  ratio  of 
sixteen  to  one.  Was  he  right  then  ?  Was  his  judgment  sound 
then  ?  Would  it  have  been  wise  for  the  people  of  the  country 
to  elect  him  President  then  in  order  to  carry  out  the  policy  to 
which  he  was  then  devoted  ? 

With  the  same  confidence  during  his  second  candidacy  he 
was  heard  to  declare  that  the  paramount  issue  before  the 
American  people  was  that  of  imperialism.  Where  is  that 
issue  now  ?  However  tired  some  Americans  may  be  of 
the  burden  of  the  Philippines,  what  must  be  our  estimate 
of  the  political  wisdom  and  sense  of  proportion  for  which 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1908  255 

in  the  year  1900  the  so-called  question  of  imperialism  filled 
the  horizon  and  obscured  the  sky  as  the  one  paramount 
issue  before  the  American  people  ? 

On  August  30, 1906,  Mr.  Bryan  announced  upon  his  return 
from  Europe,  as  the  result  of  deliberate  reflection,  that  gov- 
ernment ownership  of  railroads  was  the  cure-all  demanded 
by  the  public  interest.  "  I  have  reached  the  conclusion,"  he 
declared,  "  that  there  will  be  no  permanent  relief  on  the  rail- 
road question  from  the  discrimination  between  individuals 
and  between  places  and  from  extortionate  rates  until  the 
railroads  are  the  property  of  the  Government  and  are 
operated  by  the  Government  in  the  interest  of  the  people." 
That  declaration  he  has  repeated  many  times  in  substance. 

The  Republican  party  believes  in  the  regulation  of  rail- 
roads. It  believes  that  then*  managers  ought  to  be  made  and 
can  be  made  to  obey  the  law.  It  believes  that  by  an  enforce- 
ment of  the  law,  not  spasmodic  and  sensational,  but  steady, 
firm  and  persistent,  excessive  and  discriminating  rates  can  be 
stopped;  and  it  is  now  and  has  been  for  a  considerable  period 
engaged  in  such  enforcement  with  marked  efficiency  and 
success.  It  proposes  for  the  Presidency  a  candidate  who  de- 
clares his  purpose  to  continue  and  complete  that  enforcement 
of  the  law  and  whose  competency  to  do  so  with  success  has 
been  proved.  Mr.  Bryan  does  not  believe  in  the  regulation 
of  railroads.  He  does  not  believe  it  practicable.  He  regards  it 
as  bound  to  fail,  although  he  is  willing  to  criticize  the  Repub- 
lican party  for  not  accomplishing  that  vast  and  complicated 
task  all  at  once. 

It  is  natural  to  observe  that  if  the  people  of  the  country- 
desire  railroads  to  be  regulated,  and  the  laws  regarding  them 
to  be  enforced,  it  would  be  wise  to  entrust  that  regulation  to 
Mr.  Taft,  who  believes  in  regulation  and  has  faith  in  the  wis- 
dom and  effectiveness  of  the  law,  rather  than  to  the  hands  of 
one  who  believes  that  all  effort  to  regulate  must  prove  futile. 


256  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

The  chief  importance  of  this  subject,  however,  rests  in 
the  light  it  throws  upon  the  candidate's  qualification  for  the 
presidential  office.  It  is  an  essential  characteristic  of  our 
system  of  government  that  it  aims  to  afford  individual 
opportunity  for  enterprise  rather  than  to  exercise  paternal 
control.  Americans  have  all  felt  from  the  earliest  times  that 
undue  extension  of  governmental  power  threatened  liberty 
and  tended  to  dull  the  initiative  which  has  made  us  great  as  a 
nation.  It  has  been  only  upon  the  most  long  continued  con- 
sideration and  with  many  doubts  that  we  have  yielded  step 
by  step  to  the  enlargements  of  governmental  regulation 
made  necessary  by  the  increasing  complications  of  modern 
life  and  business.  The  apostle  of  the  doctrine  that  the  func- 
tions of  government  should  be  confined  within  the  narrowest 
possible  limits  was  Thomas  Jefferson,  whose  disciple  Mr. 
Bryan  today  professes  to  be.  Under  his  inspiration  the  true 
Democratic  party  continually  resisted  the  extension  of  gov- 
ernmental functions.  It  opposed  the  use  of  government 
moneys  for  internal  improvements.  It  opposed  the  building 
of  the  Pacific  railroads.  It  opposed  the  National  Bank  act. 
It  denied  the  right  of  the  National  Government  to  impose  a 
protective  tariff.  It  has  steadfastly  maintained  the  broadest 
construction  of  state  rights  and  the  narrowest  construction  of 
national  rights.  Yet  Mr.  Bryan,  while  inscribing  the  name 
of  Thomas  Jefferson  upon  his  standard,  seriously  proposes 
that  the  Federal  Government  shall  not  merely  regulate  the 
operations  of  railroads  which  are  engaged  in  interstate 
commerce,  but  shall  acquire  and  own  and  operate  itself  all 
the  great  railroads  of  the  country.  Consider  for  a  moment  the 
situation  which  would  exist  in  the  state  of  New  York  with 
the  Federal  Government  owning  and  Federal  officers  in 
Washington  controlling  with  all  the  rights  of  ownership  the 
New  York  &  New  Haven,  the  New  York  Central,  the  West 
Shore,  the  Ontario  &  Western,  the  Delaware  &  Hudson,  the 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1908  257 

Delaware,  Lackawanna  &  Western,  the  Erie,  the  Lehigh 
Valley,  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio,  and  the  Pennsylvania  railroads. 
Consider  the  situation  in  Illinois  with  the  Government  con- 
trolling all  the  railroads  that  concentrate  in  Chicago;  in 
Missouri  the  railroads  that  center  in  St.  Louis.  Add  to  that 
Mr.  Bryan's  proposal  that  no  great  interstate  business  shall 
be  transacted  —  and  all  great  business  is  interstate  business 
—  without  the  permission  of  the  Federal  Government  evi- 
denced by  a  license;  and  you  cannot  fail  to  realize  that  he  is 
prepared  to  see  the  state  dwarfed  into  insignificance,  and 
the  farmer,  the  miner,  the  manufacturer,  the  merchant,  all 
individual  enterprise,  not  merely  subject  to  restraint  against 
wrongdoing,  but  dependent  upon  the  Government,  and  upon 
a  centralized  Government  at  Washington  for  their  very  exis- 
tence. That  is  not  reform:  it  is  revolution.  It  is  reversion 
to  the  ideas  of  paternal  government  from  which  America  had 
happily  escaped  with  her  system  of  free  individual  oppor- 
tunity and  enterprise  and  to  the  ideas  out  of  which  South 
America  has  been  bravely  struggling  for  a  generation.  And 
this  is  to  be  done  in  the  name  of  Thomas  Jefferson ! 

Now  Mr.  Bryan  proposes  that  under  supervision  of  the 
National  Government  everybody  shall  provide  for  the  pay- 
ment of  everybody  else's  debts  by  his  bank  deposit  guaranty 
scheme. 

Is  it  prudent  to  place  in  his  hands  the  great  power  of  the 
Presidency;  and  above  all  is  it  wise  to  give  to  him  rather 
than  to  Mr.  Taft,  the  experienced  judge,  the  filling  of  the 
four  vacancies  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
which  may  be  expected  during  the  next  Administration  ? 

What  is  furnished  by  the  record  of  the  Democratic  party 
at  large  to  show  that  it  is  competent  to  maintain  the  pros- 
perity we  have,  and  execute  the  promises  of  reform  it  tenders? 
No  proof  whatever  of  that  is  offered.  All  the  evidence  we 
have  is  the  other  way.  The  majority  of  us  have  not  yet  for- 


258  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

gotten  the  second  administration  of  Grover  Cleveland,  which 
ended  only  on  March  4, 1897.  The  Democracy  then  had  its 
opportunity  to  show  the  world  what  it  could  do  with  govern- 
ment, for  it  possessed  the  Executive  office,  a  majority  of  the 
Senate  and  a  majority  of  the  House.  Its  opportunity  to 
exercise  that  control  for  the  public  benefit  was  wasted.  Dis- 
cord and  confusion  reigned  throughout  the  entire  four  years. 
Incapacity  to  reach  practical  conclusions  or  to  take  any 
effective  action  was  demonstrated.  No  promises  were  kept. 
No  reforms  were  accomplished.  It  became  apparent  that 
the  sole  cohesive  force  that  bound  the  Democratic  party 
together  was  the  desire  for  office,  and  once  in  office,  instead 
of  progress,  we  had  all  factions  pulling  different  ways,  totally 
incapable  of  agreeing  upon  a  common  course  of  conduct. 
There  was  but  one  sentiment  in  which  a  majority  of  the 
Democratic  majority  could  be  united;  that  was  in  hatred  of 
Mr.  Cleveland,  and  they  hated  him  for  his  virtues.  His 
sturdy  integrity  and  high  courage,  his  sincere  convictions  and 
patriotic  purpose,  his  experience  hi  government  and  strong 
practical  sense  afforded  a  leadership  under  which  a  party 
capable  of  government  could  have  done  great  things  for  the 
country.  The  Democratic  party  repudiated  his  leadership, 
and  the  very  men  who  now  control  that  party  followed  him 
to  his  grave  with  depreciation  and  detraction.  Under  that 
discordant  Democracy  the  country  drifted  through  years  of 
commercial  depression  and  disaster,  poverty  and  distress, 
without  effective  government,  until  the  first  election  of 
McKinley  and  a  Republican  Congress  placed  the  reins  of 
power  in  the  hands  of  a  party  competent  to  govern. 

Are  the  people  of  the  United  States  ready  to  repeat  that 
experience  of  Democratic  government  ? 


THE  NEW  YORK  STATE  CAMPAIGN  OF 

1910 

ADDRESS  AT  THE  MANHATTAN  CASINO,  NEW  YORK, 
OCTOBER  28,  1910 

IT  often  happens  that  the  result  of  an  election  depends  upon 
what  issues  different  voters  think  their  votes  will  decide, 
many  voting  on  one  issue  and  many  others  voting  upon 
another  issue,  with  the  result  that  nothing  is  decided  except 
who  shall  hold  office.  The  consequences  of  such  an  election 
are  apt  to  be  very  different  from  anything  a  majority  of  the 
voters  really  desire. 

A  good  many  Republicans  at  this  time  seem  disposed  to 
go  a  step  farther  and  to  ignore  all  the  grave  and  substantial 
issues  which  are  before  the  people  of  this  state  and  to  vote 
at  the  coming  election  upon  no  issue  whatever  but  simply  as 
an  expression  of  feeling  against  Mr.  Roosevelt,  whose  course 
regarding  national  affairs  they  disapprove  for  one  reason  or 
another,  and  whom  they  desire  to  punish  by  defeating  the 
party  to  which  they  belong,  in  which  they  believe,  and  which 
they  have  long  loyally  supported,  because  he  holds  a  dis- 
tinguished and  potent  place  in  the  councils  and  the  activities 
of  the  party. 

It  should  be  observed  that  the  declaration  of  this  intention 
cuts  both  ways.  Wherever  a  man  declares  he  will  vote 
against  the  Republican  ticket  because  he  does  not  like  Roose- 
velt there  will  be  others  who  will  vote  for  the  ticket  because 
they  do  like  Roosevelt  and  because  they  feel  that  with  his 
tremendous  force  and  courage  and  ability,  he  has  done  a 
noble  and  much  needed  work  for  honesty,  purity,  equality, 
and  freedom  in  the  political  life  of  our  country.  My  guess 

259 


260  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

would  be  that  if  the  issue  in  this  state  were  whether  Mr. 
Roosevelt  has  reflected  credit  and  honor  upon  the  Republican 
party,  on  our  state,  and  on  our  country,  or  the  contrary, 
there  would  be  a  very  large  majority  in  the  affirmative.  I  am 
not,  however,  going  to  discuss  that  question  or  to  discuss 
him,  for  there  is  no  such  issue  before  the  people  of  this  state. 
The  false  assumption  that  there  is  such  an  issue  tends  to  take 
away  from  the  cause  of  honest  and  effective  and  progressively 
improving  government  in  this  state  many  of  the  supporters 
to  whom  that  cause  is  entitled,  and  among  them  some  of  my 
old  and  valued  friends. 

It  is  said  that  we  must  consider  now  the  nomination  for 
the  Presidency  in  1912.  Well,  Mr.  Taft  is  President  of  the 
United  States;  a  Republican  President;  a  strong,  wise,  con- 
siderate, and  fearless  man.  He  has  the  qualities  which  make 
a  man  grow  in  the  estimation  of  thoughtful  people,  and, 
lying  back  of  all  the  clamor  and  excitement  of  our  political 
life,  the  American  people  are  a  thoughtful  people.  He  has 
grown  and  is  growing  and  will  continue  to  grow  in  public 
esteem.  If  he  continues  to  make  as  good  a  President  as  he  is 
making  now  he  will  be  the  natural  and  inevitable  candidate 
of  his  party  in  1912  unless  one  thing  shall  happen  —  that  the 
people  of  the  United  States  shall  repudiate  the  administra- 
tion of  Mr.  Taft  by  such  a  crushing  and  overwhelming  defeat 
of  his  party  that  it  will  be  apparent  that  Mr.  Taft  cannot  be 
reflected.  The  Democratic  party  cannot  bring  about  such 
a  result,  but  Republicans  can  by  their  adverse  votes.  After 
reelection  people  don't  scrutinize  the  multitude  of  reasons 
which  may  have  contributed  to  the  result.  They  see  only  the 
general  result,  and  if  it  should  happen  that  the  Administra- 
tion cannot  hold  its  own  party  together  the  national  con- 
vention would  be  quite  likely  to  look  for  a  Moses  to  lead  them 
out  of  the  wilderness,  and  they  might  go  to  Mr.  Roosevelt  or 
they  might  go  to  one  of  the  far  more  radical  leaders  who  are 


NEW  YORK  STATE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1910        261 

now  looming  up  on  the  political  horizon  in  the  North  and 
Middle  West.  Make  no  mistake,  my  friends:  so  far  as  this 
election  in  the  state  of  New  York  bears  any  relation  to 
national  affairs,  Republican  votes  for  the  Republican  ticket 
strengthen  the  Administration  in  the  party,  and  Republican 
votes  against  the  ticket  tend  to  weaken  and  break  down  the 
Administration.  No  one  understands  this  better  than  Mr. 
Roosevelt.  No  one  knows  better  than  he  that  the  strenuous 
efforts  he  is  making  in  behalf  of  Republican  candidates,  not 
merely  in  New  York  but  in  a  dozen  other  states,  are  services 
in  aid  of  the  Taft  administration  and  tend  towards  the 
renomination  of  Mr.  Taft  in  1912. 

It  is  said  that  to  have  Mr.  Stimson  in  the  governor's  chair 
would  promote  Mr.  Roosevelt's  political  fortune.  The 
people  who  say  this  do  not  mean  what  is  undoubtedly  true, 
that  he  will  be  such  a  governor  as  to  reflect  credit  on  every 
one  who  has  supported  him.  In  any  other  sense  the  proposi- 
tion is  based  on  an  entire  misunderstanding  of  the  man.  Mr. 
Stimson  is  not  the  kind  of  man  who  will  be  successful  politi- 
cally in  distributing  patronage  and  manipulating  caucuses 
and  delegates  and  conventions  for  or  against  any  one.  He 
would  make  a  miserable  failure  if  he  tried  it.  He  is  a  very 
strong,  able  man  with  exceptional  independence  and  decision 
of  character,  perfectly  fearless,  absolutely  upright,  and  with 
an  intelligence  of  great  natural  vigor,  thoroughly  trained  and 
guided  by  a  genuine  public  spirit.  He  was  selected  as  the 
candidate  because  he  had  done  some  things  in  public  office 
which  show  what  kind  of  man  he  is  and  which  ought  to  be  a 
guaranty  to  the  people  of  the  state  that  he  is  the  kind  of  man 
they  need  for  governor.  No  man  can  use  him  and  no  man 
can  make  a  stepping-stone  of  him.  He  is  as  big  and  strong  a 
man  at  forty-three  as  Taft  or  Roosevelt  was  at  that  age.  He 
runs  in  that  class.  He  is  of  the  quality  of  which  great  public 
servants  are  made,  and  no  matter  how  the  vote  goes  next 


262  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

month,  modest,  unassuming,  and  unselfish  as  he  is,  a  great 
career  awaits  him  because  he  is  such  a  man  as  the  people 
greatly  need. 

It  is  said  we  should  consider  in  our  votes  at  this  election 
certain  declarations  Mr.  Roosevelt  has  made  —  an  attack  on 
the  courts,  and  something  called  New  Nationalism. 

With  due  respect  to  the  people  who  are  talking  in  this  way, 
I  venture  to  assert  that  if  three  months  hence  they  will  look 
back  at  their  utterances  they  will  themselves  see  that  this  is 
arrant  nonsense.  There  is  a  very  old  American  saying  that 
when  a  litigant  does  not  like  a  decision  it  is  his  privilege  to  go 
down  to  the  tavern  and  swear  at  the  court.  Everybody 
grumbles  about  decisions  that  he  does  not  like,  and  Mr. 
Roosevelt  appears  to  have  done  so  out  loud  and  in  public, 
according  to  his  temperament  and  habits.  But  I  have  never 
known  the  grumbling  at  decisions  of  the  courts  by  people 
who  do  not  like  them  to  do  any  harm,  and  the  idea  that  Mr. 
Roosevelt  contemplates  an  attack  upon  our  judicial  system, 
or  that  that  system  is  in  danger  from  him  or  from  any  one  else, 
is  purely  fanciful  and  devised  for  campaign  purposes  only. 

As  for  myself,  I  regard  the  power  of  the  judicial  branch  of 
our  government,  both  in  the  state  and  in  the  nation,  to  sit  in 
judgment  upon  the  constitutionality  of  legislative  and  execu- 
tive acts,  as  the  chief  contribution  of  America  to  the  art  of 
self-government.  The  power  of  the  courts  to  declare  unlaw- 
ful and  void  the  acts  of  legislatures  and  executives  when  those 
acts  do  not  conform  to  the  great  rules  of  right  action 
embodied  in  our  constitution,  is  the  chief  guaranty  of  per- 
manency in  our  institutions.  It  is  the  chief  guaranty  that 
our  liberty  shall  be  enjoyed  without  violating  justice,  and 
that  justice  shall  be  administered  without  destroying  liberty. 
If  the  existence  or  exercise  of  that  power  by  the  courts  in  its 
full  scope  and  authority  were  attacked,  I  should  do  my 


NEW  YORK  STATE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1910        263 

utmost,  as  I  know  you  would  do  your  utmost,  to  repel  the 
attack  and  to  maintain  the  dignity  and  the  power  and 
the  permanence  of  our  judicial  system. 

The  overwhelming  mass  of  the  American  people  feel  the 
same  way.  Nobody  really  has  the  slightest  idea  of  making 
Congress  and  the  state  legislatures  superior  to  the  Con- 
stitution, as  they  would  be  if  the  power  of  the  courts  to 
pass  upon  their  acts  were  taken  away.  All  this  talk  about  an 
attack  upon  the  courts  and  danger  to  the  courts  is  mere  idle 
campaigning  and  pretense. 

What  is  New  Nationalism  ?  WTiat  is  there  beneath  the 
phrase  of  new  political  or  constitutional  doctrine  ?  There 
may  be  something  that  I  have  not  heard  of,  but  I  have  been 
able  to  find  nothing  in  it  that  was  not  taught  in  my  class  in 
the  law  school  forty  odd  years  ago;  that  has  not  been  written 
large  in  the  text-books  on  the  Constitution  since  Marshall's 
time;  that  has  not  been  part  of  the  generally  accepted  belief  of 
the  American  people  for  generations.  I  can  see  that  some 
of  the  old  doctrines  that  we  have  professed,  we  have  grown 
lax  and  indifferent  in  applying;  that  some  of  the  ideals  to 
which  we  have  done  lip  service  and  pen  service,  we  have 
ignored  in  practice;  that  some  old  established  principles  have 
been  treated  as  obsolete  because  we  have  failed  to  provide 
adequate  means  for  applying  them  to  new  conditions.  So 
far  as  I  can  see  anything  new  in  the  so-called  New  National- 
ism, it  is  that  there  shall  be  a  renewed  and  active  sense  of 
loyalty  and  of  duty  to  the  old  doctrines  and  the  old  ideals  of 
American  democracy;  that  the  nation,  to  the  full  limit  of  the 
power  vested  in  it  by  the  Constitution  for  the  general  welfare, 
and  every  state,  to  the  full  limit  of  its  powers  of  local  self- 
government  under  the  Constitution,  shall  wake  up  to  the 
duties  pressing  upon  them,  for  intelligent  government  keep- 
ing pace  in  its  effectiveness  with  the  changing  conditions  and 


264  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

requirements  of  our  time.  That  is  all  that  I  find  new  in  the 
so-called  New  Nationalism,  and  I  am  heartily  in  favor  of  that 
and  I  know  that  you  are  heartily  in  favor  of  it. 

I  have  said  that  this  idea  of  voting  for  or  against  Mr. 
Roosevelt,  who  is  not  a  candidate,  tended  to  make  some  of 
my  Republican  friends  abandon  the  grave  and  substantial 
questions  with  which  the  people  of  the  state  ought  to  deal  at 
this  election.  Such  questions  certainly  are  before  us,  and  it 
will  not  be  very  creditable  to  the  people  of  the  state  if  they 
permit  themselves  to  be  diverted  from  dealing  with  those 
questions  on  their  merits. 

What  gave  Mr.  Roosevelt  his  leadership  of  the  Saratoga 
convention  ?  He  had  no  office;  he  had  no  patronage;  he 
had  no  money;  he  could  neither  punish  nor  reward  any  one; 
and  the  controlling  political  organization  of  the  Republican 
party  was  against  him.  How  did  it  happen  that  a  majority 
of  the  delegates  voted  with  him  and  against  the  organiza- 
tion ?  The  answer  is,  that  there  was  an  issue  before  the 
convention  in  which  the  people  of  the  state  were  deeply 
interested.  Mr.  Roosevelt  espoused  the  right  side  of  that 
issue  against  the  Republican  organization,  and  naturally 
enough  he  furnished  the  element  of  leadership  to  the  side 
he  was  with.  A  majority  of  the  delegates  voted  with  him 
because  upon  that  issue  the  people  who  elected  them  were 
with  hmi.  The  issue  was  a  revolt  against  the  tyranny  of 
party  machines  and  party  leaders.  It  was  a  part  of  that 
great  rebellion  which  has  been  going  on  all  over  the  Union 
and  in  so  many  states  has  led  to  new  political  methods  of 
varying  merit  —  direct  primaries;  direct  election  of  sena- 
tors; the  initiative  and  referendum,  and  recall  —  all  devices 
to  enable  voters  to  have  their  way  notwithstanding  political 
machines,  and  to  deprive  the  professional  politician  of  the 
opportunity  to  barter  and  trade  for  his  own  purposes,  with 
the  power  to  manipulate  and  control  conventions  and  dele- 


NEW  YORK  STATE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1910        265 

gallons  and  to  confer  nominations  and  appointments  to 
office  as  his  stock  in  trade.  The  feeling  had  been  emphasized 
in  this  state  by  revelations  of  corruption  in  the  legislature 
at  Albany,  of  direct  bribery  of  organization  legislators  and 
indirect  control  of  legislation  through  alleged  political  con- 
tributions. For  three  years  Governor  Hughes  had  waged  an 
incessant  warfare  by  vigorous  and  outspoken  appeals  to  the 
people  of  the  state  for  reform  in  political  methods  and  eman- 
cipation from  machine  control.  The  organizations  of  both 
political  parties  had  stubbornly  resisted  the  demand.  A 
majority  of  the  Democrats  in  the  legislature,  aided  by  a 
minority  of  the  Republicans,  had  defeated  not  merely  the 
direct  primary  bill  of  the  governor  but  the  more  moderate  and 
tentative  measure  which  the  governor  approved  and  which 
Seth  Low  and  Joseph  H.  Choate  and  Henry  L.  Stimson 
and  President  Schurman  of  Cornell,  and  President  Butler 
of  Columbia,  and  a  dozen  other  leaders  of  opinion  in  the 
state  had  petitioned  the  legislature  to  pass.  It  had  become 
apparent  to  thoughtful  Republicans  that  a  majority  of  the 
Republican  vote  of  the  state  was  with  Governor  Hughes 
and  against  the  organization.  President  Taft  had  openly  and 
repeatedly  declared  as  early  as  April  last  his  opinion  that 
the  interests  of  the  party  in  the  state  of  New  York  required 
that  the  management  should  be  changed.  The  management 
declined  to  yield  and  it  was  plain  that  at  the  next  state 
convention  a  struggle  was  to  take  place  between  the  unor- 
ganized voters  of  the  Republican  party  who  supported  the 
demands  of  Governor  Hughes,  and  the  highly  disciplined 
and  skillful  organization  which  opposed  his  demands.  It  is 
a  matter  of  common  knowledge  that  in  June,  shortly  after 
Mr.  Roosevelt  returned  from  Europe,  Governor  Hughes 
induced  him  to  come  to  the  aid  of  the  cause  the  governor 
represented  and  to  announce  his  position  by  a  telegram 
advising  the  passage  of  the  moderate  primary  reform  bill. 


266  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

So  the  lines  were  drawn  for  the  September  convention  with 
Mr.  Roosevelt  on  that  side  of  the  controversy.  He  did  his 
part  in  the  struggle  with  his  customary  force,  ability,  and 
natural  qualities  of  leadership.  It  was  not  his  fight;  it  was 
Governor  Hughes's  fight;  it  was  President  Taft's  fight;  it 
was  the  fight  of  the  voters  against  the  machine,  it  was  your 
fight  and  mine;  the  fight  of  every  man  who  loves  good  gov- 
ernment and  believes  it  essential  to  democratic  government 
that  the  great  body  of  the  people  shall  have  a  full,  fair,  and 
free  opportunity  for  the  expression  of  their  will.  With  Mr. 
Roosevelt's  aid  and  with  his  leadership,  the  voters  of  the 
party  controlled  the  convention  against  the  organization  and 
turned  the  old  organization  out.  They  committed  the  party 
in  the  great  deliberative  assembly  of  its  lawful  represen- 
tatives to  the  principles  for  which  Governor  Hughes  had 
contended  and  the  policies  for  which  President  Taft  had 
declared.  We  ought  to  be  grateful  to  Mr.  Roosevelt  for  the 
service  he  has  rendered,  and  the  voters  of  the  state  ought  to 
reap  the  fruits  of  the  victory  he  has  helped  them  to  win. 

Voters  of  the  Republican  party,  where  do  you  stand  on  this 
issue  ?  Do  you  wish  to  continue  the  same  old  methods  of 
political  control  which  have  been  characterized  by  the  damn- 
ing facts  disclosed  in  the  Albany  investigations  ?  Or  do  you 
wish  for  simpler  and  purer  political  methods,  and  full  and 
unhampered  opportunity  to  control  your  own  political  affairs, 
and  party  and  public  officers  responsible  to  you  rather  than 
responsible  to  clever  managers  who  control  nominations  in 
the  old  way  ?  If  you  are  for  the  Hughes  view  of  this  ques- 
tion, then  you  must  show  it  by  your  votes  for  the  candidates 
who  represent  that  view  and  are  the  standard-bearers  in  the 
fight  for  your  equal  and  untrammelled  opportunity.  You 
will  find  no  place  in  the  Democratic  party  for  the  advocacy 
of  such  a  view;  for  that  party,  whatever  it  may  say  in  its 
platform,  is  sending  back  to  the  legislature  the  leaders  and 


NEW  YORK  STATE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1910        267 

the  great  body  of  that  band,  who,  with  a  minority  of  the 
Republicans  in  the  last  legislature,  defeated  the  reform  legis- 
lation of  the  last  session.  And  it  has  delivered  itself  over  to 
the  complete  control  of  Tammany  Hall,  the  most  flagrant 
organization  of  machine  political  control  known  to  American 
politics. 

There  is  another  subject  of  great  moment  that  we  have  to 
attend  to  at  this  election.  The  state  is  engaged  in  engineer- 
ing works  of  enormous  magnitude.  It  is  spending  one  hun- 
dred million  dollars  upon  the  barge  canal,  fifty  million  dollars 
of  state  money  for  the  construction  of  good  roads,  and  fifty 
million  dollars  more  from  local  municipalities  for  the  same 
purpose,  and  an  indefinite  number  of  millions  for  the  re- 
moval of  grade  crossings.  That  work  is  being  done  honestly, 
faithfully,  and  efficiently.  Its  conduct  is  characterized  by 
the  qualities  of  the  Hughes  administration.  The  Republican 
party  proposes  to  continue  for  the  prosecution  of  this  work 
the  state  engineer,  Mr.  Williams,  whose  uprightness  and 
efficiency  have  been  proved;  and  for  the  great  financial 
officer  of  the  state  it  has  nominated  Mr.  Thompson,  of  Troy. 
He  has  a  clean  and  wholesome  record,  and  is  a  man  of  the 
highest  character.  The  Democratic  party  allotted  these  two 
great  offices  to  Tammany  Hall  and  nominated  for  them  men 
named  by  Mr.  Murphy.  What  Tammany  Hall  does  with 
contracts  we  may  learn  from  the  Skene  case.  Skene  was  the 
state  engineer  and  surveyor  elected  upon  the  Democratic 
ticket  four  years  ago  and  in  charge  of  the  barge  canal  and 
road  improvement  work.  He  has  been  indicted  and  tried  for 
helping  contractors  to  defraud  the  state.  In  the  particular 
case  tried,  it  appeared  that  after  the  bids  for  a  contract  were 
opened  the  bid  upon  which  the  award  was  made  was  raised 
from  $61,000  to  $70,000,  just  under  the  next  higher  bid,  so 
that  the  state,  which,  under  the  bid,  was  entitled  to  have 
the  work  done  for  $61,000,  was  made  to  pay  for  the  work 


268  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

$70,000.  The  difference  was  divided  between  the  contractor 
and  somebody  in  the  state  engineer  and  surveyor's  office. 
There  were,  I  understand,  many  other  similar  cases,  and  the 
amount  lost  to  the  state  by  this  course  of  proceeding  is 
variously  estimated  at  from  $500,000  to  $1,000,000.  Skene 
was  a  product  of  Tammany  Hall  and  his  defense  was,  not 
that  the  fraud  was  not  committed,  but  that  the  person  respon- 
sible was  an  assistant  appointed  by  him  from  Tammany  Hall 
on  the  nomination  of  Murphy.  He  took  refuge  personally 
behind  an  assertion  of  his  own  incompetency,  neglect  of 
duty,  failure  to  see  the  fraud  being  committed  under  his  very 
eyes,  entire  failure  to  protect  the  interests  of  the  state.  No 
matter  whether  his  defense  was  true  or  not,  the  incompe- 
tency, the  neglect  of  duty,  the  fraud  all  belonged  to  Tam- 
many Hall.  They  are  an  illustration  of  Tammany  Hall's 
dealing  with  public  contracts  and  they  are  an  illustration  of 
what  you  have  to  expect  if  you  put  the  prosecution  of  these 
great  undertakings  and  the  expenditure  of  these  enormous 
sums  of  money  into  the  hands  of  Tammany  Hall  officials  for 
the  next  two  years. 

What  would  you  do  if  the  same  kind  of  situation  arose  in 
your  private  business  ?  Would  you  discharge  the  superin- 
tendent who  had  been  proved  to  be  faithful  and  efficient,  and 
put  the  work  and  the  control  of  the  money  into  the  hands  of 
men  with  such  credentials  ? 

This  is  the  private  business  of  each  one  of  us.  Whether  it 
be  by  direct  taxation  or  indirect,  whether  the  payments  be 
from  current  revenues  or  the  proceeds  of  bonds,  sooner  or 
later,  in  one  way  or  another,  the  money  honestly  spent,  the 
money  wasted  through  incompetency  and  neglect  of  duty  and 
the  money  divided  by  fraudulent  officials  with  fraudulent  con- 
tractors comes  out  of  the  pockets  of  the  people  of  the  state. 

A  third  subject  of  primary  importance  is  the  continuance 
of  the  Republican  policy  of  just  and  adequate  supervision  of 


NEW  YORK  STATE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1910        269 

transportation  corporations  expressed  in  the  Public  Service 
Commission  laws.  Is  that  policy  to  be  continued  ?  Are  the 
Public  Service  Commissions  to  be  maintained  and  streng- 
thened and  made  still  more  effective  ?  We  know  where  the 
Republican  party  stands  upon  this,  for  it  passed  the  laws. 
We  know  where  Tammany  Hall  stands  by  the  votes  of  its  rep- 
resentatives. The  Republican  platform  approves  the  Com- 
mission laws.  The  Democratic  platform  gives  us  but  the 
meaningless  generality,  "  We  favor  reasonable  regulation  by 
the  state  of  public  service  corporations."  What  they  con- 
sider reasonable  no  one  knows.  But  we  do  know  one  thing, 
that  they  do  not  include  under  that  head  the  public  service 
commissioner,  for  we  have  the  specific  utterance  of  their 
platform  in  1908  denouncing  the  commissions.  The  ques- 
tion has  been  put  specifically  to  Mr.  Dix  by  Mr.  Stimson 
as  to  where  he  stands  on  this  question  and  he  has  failed  to 
answer.  We  have  fair  notice,  then,  that  we  may  look  for  a 
reversal  of  this  Republican  policy  of  supervision  by  public 
service  commissions,  in  case  the  Democratic  party  comes  into 
power.  Are  the  people  of  the  state  ready  to  reverse  that 
policy  ?  Are  they  ready  to  go  back  to  the  time  when  there 
was  nowhere  for  a  shipper  to  go  if  he  was  unjustly  treated 
except  to  the  legislature  or  to  a  law-suit  ?  To  the  time  when 
strike  bills  in  the  legislature  furnished  a  profitable  occupa- 
tion, and  transportation  corporations  went  into  politics  in 
self-defense  ?  If  not,  if  the  voters  of  the  state  are  in  favor 
of  this  policy,  which  surely  has  been  most  beneficent  in  its 
effects  both  to  the  people  of  the  state  and  to  the  corpora- 
tions themselves,  the  time  to  show  it  is  by  their  votes  in 
November. 

Upon  these  and  a  dozen  other  questions  of  importance,  the 
action  of  the  voters  at  the  next  election  is  of  vital  interest  to 
the  people  of  the  state.  It  is  important  to  choose  intelli- 
gently and  considerately  between  the  two  candidates  for 


270  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

governor  with  regard  to  their  personal  merits  as  we  know 
them.  Mere  respectability  is  not  enough  to  protect  the 
interests  of  the  state  in  the  governor's  chair.  High  ability 
and  force  and  character  are  needed  there,  and  it  is  important 
for  every  one  of  us  to  have  them  there.  What  do  we  know 
of  these  two  candidates  ? 

We  know  of  Mr.  Stimson,  the  Republican  candidate,  that 
under  President  Roosevelt's  administration  he  was  United 
States  attorney  in  New  York  for  several  years,  receiving  a 
salary  much  less  than  he  was  making  from  private  practice, 
and  that  at  the  close  of  that  administration  he  retired  from 
office  to  return  to  his  private  law  practice;  that  he  was  then 
retained  under  President  Taft's  administration  as  special 
counsel  to  conduct  prosecutions  for  certain  frauds  upon  the 
customs  revenue  at  the  port  of  New  York,  again  receiving 
for  his  work  as  counsel  less  compensation  than  he  could  have 
made  in  private  practice  or  than  he  had  been  making  before 
he  went  into  the  district  attorney's  office.  We  know  that 
he  administered  the  office  of  the  district  attorney  in  all  its 
vast  and  varied  affairs  with  conspicuous  fidelity  and  success. 

We  know  that  partly  under  one  administration  and  partly 
under  the  other  he  did  these  specific  things:  he  prosecuted 
the  American  Sugar  Refining  Company  for  receiving  rebates, 
convicted  it,  and  had  it  fined  $18,000.  He  prosecuted  it  a 
second  time  for  receiving  rebates,  convicted  it,  and  had  it 
fined  $10,000,  ajid  two  of  its  officers  fined  $1,000  each.  He 
prosecuted  it  a  third  time  for  receiving  rebates,  convicted  it, 
and  had  it  fined  $10,000.  He  prosecuted  it  a  fourth  time  for 
receiving  rebates,  convicted  it,  and  had  it  fined  $10,000.  He 
prosecuted  it  a  fifth  time  for  receiving  rebates,  convicted  it, 
and  had  it  fined  $50,000,  and  two  of  its  officers  fined  $5,000 
each.  He  prosecuted  the  Brooklyn  Cooperage  Company,  a 
subsidiary  of  the  Sugar  Company,  for  receiving  rebates,  con- 
victed it,  and  had  it  fined  $70,000.  He  prosecuted  the  West- 


NEW  YORK  STATE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1910         271 

ern  Transit  Company  for  giving  rebates,  convicted  it,  and 
had  it  fined  $10,000.  He  prosecuted  the  Chicago,  Rock 
Island  &  Pacific  Railway  Company  for  giving  rebates, 
convicted  it,  and  had  it  fined  $20,000.  He  prosecuted  the 
Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Railway  Company  for  giving 
rebates,  convicted  it,  and  had  it  fined  $20,000.  He  prose- 
cuted the  New  York  Central  Railway  Company  for  giving 
rebates,  convicted  it  and  had  it  fined  $108,000.  By  the  tune 
the  $338,000  of  fines  had  been  imposed,  traffic  managers  and 
big  shippers  began  to  realize  that  the  law  against  rebates 
meant  something,  and  we  are  told  that  the  practice  of  rebates 
has  come  to  an  end.  Show  me  another  man  anywhere  who 
has  done  so  much  to  give  living  force  and  effectiveness  to 
that  salutary  law,  or  who  is  more  entitled  to  the  respect  and 
gratitude  of  the  small  dealers  who  were  being  crowded  out 
of  business  by  the  advantages  their  big  competitors  were 
gaining  over  them  through  discriminatory  rates. 

We  know  that  he  prosecuted  the  National  Sugar  Refining 
Company  for  frauds  against  the  customs  and  recovered  from 
it  $604,304.37;  and  that  he  prosecuted  the  great  sugar  con- 
cern of  Arbuckle  Brothers  for  similar  frauds  and  recovered 
from  it  $695,753.19;  and  that  he  prosecuted  the  American 
Sugar  Refining  Company  for  similar  frauds  and  recovered 
from  it  $2,135,486.32,  making  a  total  of  $3,435,363.88.  We 
know  that  he  prosecuted  criminally  and  convicted  and  had 
sentenced  to  the  penitentiary  the  secretary  of  the  American 
Sugar  Refining  Company,  and  the  superintendent  of  the 
refinery  of  that  company,  and  the  superintendent  of  docks  of 
that  company  and  five  other  of  the  leading  employees  of  the 
company,  and  that  the  president  of  the  company  was  dead; 
and  that  he  prosecuted  and  convicted  the  two  United  States 
weighers  who  were  found  to  have  been  in  complicity  with  the 
frauds.  Show  me  another  case  of  fraud  upon  a  government 
where  against  great  wealth  and  influence  and  power  the  hand 


272  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

of  justice  has  been  held  so  firm  and  the  sword  of  justice  has 
cut  so  deep. 

We  know  that  it  was  upon  his  prosecution  that  Charles  W. 
Morse,  the  rich  and  powerful  New  York  banker,  is  expiating 
his  sins  of  high  finance  in  the  Atlanta  penitentiary.  We 
know  that  it  was  he  who  compelled  Edward  H.  Harriman 
to  answer  when  he  stood  upon  his  alleged  constitutional 
right  to  refuse  information  to  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission. 

Do  not  suppose  that  all  this  was  done  without  brains  and 
skill  and  tireless  energy  and  force  of  character  in  a  man  able 
to  maintain  himself  against  the  greatest  lawyers,  even 
including  my  friend  Judge  Parker,  as  counsel  for  the  Sugar 
Company,  and  against  all  the  multitude  of  influences,  per- 
sonal and  professional,  that  these  great  and  powerful  defen- 
dants, their  officers  and  directors  could  bring  to  bear  for  their 
protection.  It  seems  to  me  that  this  is  the  kind  of  a  man  you 
need  for  governor  of  the  state.  Do  you  not  think  this  man 
would  make  a  good  governor  ?  Would  he  not  see  that  the 
law  was  enforced  ?  Would  he  not  see  that  honesty  ruled  ? 
Would  he  not  see  that  crime  was  punished  ?  Would  he  not 
see  that  every  man  had  his  rights  and  that  no  man  had  any 
privilege  to  diminish  the  rights  of  others  ? 

What  do  we  know  about  Mr.  Dix,  the  Democratic  candi- 
date ?  He  is  a  reputable  gentleman,  a  director  in  a  number  of 
successful  money-making  corporations,  well  considered  by 
his  friends  and  neighbors  in  the  city  of  Albany,  very  cautious 
in  his  statements  about  himself  and  a  little  loose  in  his  state- 
ments about  others.  He  has  no  public  record  and  he  appears 
to  have  come  in  contact  with  public  matters  of  present 
interest  only  once. 

The  point  of  contact  was  the  tariff.  The  great  difficulty  in 
making  an  American  tariff  law  always  has  been  that  all  the 
manufacturers  of  the  country  flock  to  Washington  with 


NEW  YORK  STATE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1910        273 

statements  and  affidavits  and  protestations,  each  one  show- 
ing that  his  industry  will  be  ruined  by  a  reduction.  Congress 
has  before  it  nothing  to  oppose  these  statements  except  the 
arguments  of  people  who  have  little  personal  knowledge  of  any 
particular  business.  There  are  no  adequate  means  of  testing 
the  evidence  of  the  manufacturers  and  reaching  the  true  facts. 
With  the  vast  growth  and  complication  of  our  business  we 
have  outgrown  our  method  of  making  tariffs. 

Nevertheless  this  Congress  did  make  a  pretty  good  tariff. 
There  were  things  in  it  that  I  did  not  like  and  there  were 
failures  in  it  to  do  things  which  I  thought  ought  to  be  done; 
but  considering  all  the  difficulties  under  which  it  was  made 
it  was  a  surprisingly  good  law  and  a  great  improvement  on 
the  law  it  superseded.  Under  it  the  average  rate  of  duty  has 
been  about  eleven  per  cent  less  than  under  the  preceding 
tariff  and  less  than  under  the  Democratic  Wilson  law.  Under 
it  more  goods  have  been  admitted  free  of  all  duty  than  ever 
before  in  the  history  of  our  government  —  more  free  goods 
than  ever  before  to  an  annual  value  of  over  a  hundred  mil- 
lion dollars;  and  under  it  the  government  revenues  have  been 
made  adequate  and  a  deficit  has  been  turned  into  a  surplus. 

Then,  the  Republican  Congress  inaugurated  a  great  prac- 
tical reform  by  providing  for  a  permanent  board  of  tariff 
experts  to  get  at  the  true  facts  to  which  the  principle  of  pro- 
tection is  to  be  applied  and  to  prevent  Congress  from  ever 
again  having  to  make  a  tariff  upon  the  ex  parte  statements 
of  interested  persons. 

Now  the  Democratic  platform  condemns  that  law  and  Mr. 
Dix  personally  denounces  it  and  charges  the  Republican 
party  with  bad  faith  in  not  revising  the  tariff  downward. 

Yet  among  the  people  who  crowded  the  halls  of  the 
National  Capital,  making  the  lives  of  members  of  Congress 
a  burden  by  their  clamor  against  downward  revision  of  the 
tariff,  were  the  representatives  of  Mr.  Dix's  Standard  Wall 


274  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

Paper  Company.  What  they  urged  appears  in  this  paper 
which  I  read  from  the  Tariff  Hearings  for  the  Committee  on 
Ways  and  Means,  Volume  6,  Page  6252: 

BRIEF  SUBMITTED  BY  REPRESENTATIVES  OF  THE  WALL  PAPER 
MANUFACTURERS  ASKING  FOR  INCREASE  OF  DUTY 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  November  21,  1910. 
COMMITTEE  ON  WATS  AND  MEANS, 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 
GENTLEMEN:  — 

The  wall-paper  manufacturers  whose  signatures  are  hereto  affixed 
respectfully  ask  your  consideration  of  the  effect  produced  upon  the  wall- 
paper industry  by  the  rapidly  increasing  importation  of  wall  papers,  due 
to  the  low  rate  of  duty  applying  to  same  under  the  present  tariff,  according 
to  Schedule  M,  paragraph  402,  law  of  1897,  wherein  the  duty  is  placed  at 
twenty-five  per  cent  ad  valorem,  and  hope  that  our  arguments  will  justify 
you  in  recommending  a  material  increase  in  the  rate  of  duty  in  order  that 
the  manufacturer  may  be  afforded  at  least  some  relief  from  the  present 
discouraging  conditions,  etc.,  etc. 

Then,  after  referring  to  the  materials  of  which  wall  paper  is 
made,  the  paper  proceeds: 

We  appreciate  the  fact  that  these  so-called  raw  materials,  as  far  as  wall 
paper  is  concerned,  are  finished  productions  in  themselves,  and  that  it 
might  work  an  injustice  to  other  industries  in  this  country  to  have  the  duty 
on  such  materials  reduced,  and,  because  of  these  facts,  we  ask  for  an 
increased  duty  on  foreign  wall  papers. 

Among  the  signatures  to  this  paper  is  "  Standard  Wall 
Paper  Company,  W.  A.  Huppuch,  First  Vice-President." 
This  is  the  same  Huppuch  whom  Mr.  Dix  and  Mr.  Murphy 
have  made  chairman  of  the  Democratic  State  Committee  to 
aid  Mr.  Dix  in  denouncing  the  Republican  party  for  not 
revising  the  tariff  downward. 

What  inferences  are  we  to  draw  as  to  the  sincerity  of  the 
man  who  can  take  these  two  positions,  one  for  his  private 
interests  and  the  other  as  a  candidate  for  effect  upon  the 
public  ?  Is  this  gentleman  not  rather  too  —  I  will  say  — 
"  adaptable  "  to  be  an  ideal  governor  of  the  state  ? 


NEW  YORK  STATE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1910       275 

Can  any  one  doubt  on  what  we  know  of  these  candidates 
which  one  of  the  two  is  the  better  fitted  to  protect  the  great 
interests  of  the  state  in  the  governor's  chair  at  Albany  ? 

My  Republican  friends,  no  individual  and  no  people  ever 
got  and  held  good,  faithful,  and  effective  service  without 
recognizing  and  approving  such  service.  If  you  would  have 
your  servants  loyal  and  true  you  must  be  loyal  and  true  to 
them  in  accordance  with  their  deserts.  Nor  does  any  people 
succeed  in  any  cause,  whether  it  be  to  conserve  what  is  good 
or  to  win  forward  in  progress  toward  better  things,  unless 
it  be  by  resolute  adherence  to  purpose  through  long  years  of 
effort  unswerved  by  temporary  gusts  of  passion  or  prejudice. 
Our  party  is  sound  and  wholesome.  Since  the  last  election, 
when  it  received  general  public  approval  it  has  given,  both  in 
Congress  and  in  our  state  legislature,  a  great  array  of  wise 
and  useful  legislation.  It  has  uncloaked  and  punished  its  own 
wrongdoers.  The  administrations  of  President  Taft  in  Wash- 
ington and  of  Governor  Hughes  in  Albany  have  been  models 
of  uprightness  and  efficiency.  The  party  still  represents,  and 
faithfully  represents,  better  than  any  other  political  organ- 
ization does  or  ever  has,  the  great  fundamental  principles 
upon  which  our  country  must  stand  if  it  shall  continue  pros- 
perous and  deserving  of  prosperity.  If  you  believe  in  Taft 
and  Hughes  and  the  men  who  with  them  and  with  you  have 
been  rendering  loyal  service  to  the  country  and  to  the  state, 
then  stand  by  them  with  your  votes.  Some  of  you  are  think- 
ing, because  of  a  temporary  side  wind  of  personal  feeling  and 
prejudice,  of  deserting  the  cause  for  which  we  have  been 
fighting  together  for  many  years,  and  giving  aid  and  comfort 
to  all  that  you  most  abhor  in  politics.  I  beg  of  you  not  to 
do  so.  You  would  gratify  a  momentary  feeling,  but  you 
would  do  a  harm  to  your  country  and  to  your  state,  and 
you  would  regret  it  hereafter. 


THE  ACHIEVEMENTS  OF  REPUBLICAN 
ADMINISTRATIONS 

ADDRESS  AS  CHAIRMAN  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN  NATIONAL 
CONVENTION,  CHICAGO.  JUNE  18,  1912 

BELIEVE  that  I  appreciate  this  expression  of  confidence. 
I  wish  I  were  more  competent  for  the  service  you 
require  of  me. 

The  struggle  for  leadership  in  the  Republican  party  which 
has  so  long  engrossed  the  attention  and  excited  the  feelings 
of  its  members  is  about  to  be  determined  by  the  selection  of  a 
candidate.  The  varying  claims  of  opinion  for  recognition  in 
the  political  creed  of  the  party  are  about  to  be  settled  by  the 
adoption  of  a  platform. 

The  supreme  council  of  the  party  in  this  great  national 
convention,  representing  every  state  and  territory  in  due 
proportion,  according  to  rules  long  since  established,  is  about 
to  appeal  to  the  American  people  for  a  continuance  of  the 
power  of  government  which  the  party  has  exercised  with  but 
brief  interruptions  for  more  than  half  a  century,  and  that 
appeal  is  to  be  based  upon  the  soundness  of  the  principles 
approved,  and  the  qualities  of  the  candidates  selected  by  the 
convention. 

In  the  performance  of  this  duty  by  the  convention,  and  in 
the  acceptance  of  its  conclusions  by  Republicans,  is  to  be 
applied  the  ever-recurring  test  of  a  party's  fitness  to  govern, 
its  coherence  and  its  formative  and  controlling  power  of 
organization.  And  these  depend  upon  the  willingness  of  the 
members  of  the  party  to  subordinate  their  varying  individual 
opinions  and  postpone  the  matters  of  difference  between 

277 


278  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

them  in  order  that  they  may  act  in  unison  upon  the  great 
questions  wherein  they  agree;  upon  their  willingness  and 
capacity  to  thrust  aside  the  disappointment  which  some  of 
them  must  always  feel  in  failing  to  secure  success  for  the 
candidates  of  their  preference;  upon  the  loyalty  of  party 
members  to  the  party  itself,  to  the  great  organization  whose 
agency  in  government  they  believe  to  be  for  the  best  interests 
of  the  nation,  and  for  whose  continuance  in  power  their  love  of 
country  constrains  them  to  labor. 

Without  these  things  there  can  be  no  party  worthy  of  the 
name.  Without  them  party  association  is  a  rope  of  sand, 
party  organization  is  an  ineffective  form,  party  responsi- 
bility disappears,  and  with  it  disappears  the  right  to  public 
confidence. 

Without  organized  parties,  having  these  qualities  of  cohe- 
rence and  loyalty,  free  popular  government  becomes  a  con- 
fused and  continual  conflict  between  a  vast  multitude  of 
individual  opinions,  individual  interests,  individual  attrac- 
tions and  repulsions,  from  which  effective  government  can 
emerge  only  by  answering  to  the  universal  law  of  necessary 
organization  and  again  forming  parties. 

Throughout  our  party's  history  in  each  presidential  elec- 
tion we  have  gone  to  the  American  people  with  the  confident 
and  just  assertion  that  the  Republican  party  is  not  a  mere 
fortuitous  collection  of  individuals,  but  is  a  coherent  and 
living  force  as  an  organization.  It  is  effective,  responsible, 
worthy  of  confidence,  competent  to  govern.  The  traditions 
of  its  great  struggles  for  liberty,  for  the  supremacy  of  law,  for 
the  preservation  of  constitutional  government,  for  national 
honor,  exercise  a  controlling  influence  upon  its  conduct.  The 
lofty  purpose  of  its  great  originators  has  been  transmitted  by 
spiritual  succession  from  generation  to  generation  of  party 
leaders,  and  it  is  no  idle  rhetoric  when  we  say,  as  we  have  so 
often  said  and  are  about  to  say  again  to  the  American  people: 


REPUBLICAN  ADMINISTRATIONS  279 

"  We  are  entitled  to  your  belief  in  the  sincerity  of  the 
principles  we  profess  and  the  loyalty  of  our  candidates  to 
those  principles,  because  we  are  the  party  of  Lincoln,  and 
Sumner,  and  Seward,  and  Andrew,  and  Morton,  and  Grant, 
and  Hayes,  and  Garfield,  and  Arthur,  and  Harrison,  and 
Elaine,  and  Hoar,  and  McKinley." 

We  claim  that  we  are  entitled  to  a  popular  vote  of  confi- 
dence at  the  coming  election  because  we  have  demonstrated 
that  we  are  the  party  of  affirmative,  constructive  policies  for 
the  betterment  and  progress  of  our  country  in  all  the  fields 
upon  which  the  activity  and  influence  of  government  can 
rightly  enter.  We  claim  it  because  we  have  shown  ourselves 
a  party  of  honest,  efficient,  and  economical  administration  in 
which  public  moneys  are  faithfully  applied,  appointments  are 
made  on  grounds  of  merit,  efficient  service  is  rigorously 
exacted,  graft  is  reduced  to  a  minimum,  derelictions  from 
official  duty  are  sternly  punished,  and  a  high  standard  of 
official  morality  is  maintained.  We  claim  it  because  we  have 
maintained  and  promoted  peace  with  the  world,  and  the 
dignity,  honor,  and  just  interests  of  the  United  States  among 
the  nations.  We  claim  it  because  our  party  stands  now,  as 
it  has  ever  stood,  for  order  and  liberty  and  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  constitutional  system  of  government  through 
which  a  self -controlled  democracy  for  more  than  a  century 
has  established  against  all  detractors  the  competency  of  the 
American  people  to  govern  themselves  in  law-abiding 
prosperity.  We  challenge  the  judgment  of  the  American 
people  on  the  policies  of  McKinley  and  Roosevelt  and  Taft. 

President  Taft,  in  his  speech  of  acceptance  on  July  28, 
1908,  paid  a  just  tribute  to  the  great  service  rendered  by  his 
predecessor  in  awakening  the  public  conscience,  inaugurating 
reforms,  and  saving  the  country  from  the  dangers  of  a  pluto- 
cratic government.  He  instanced  the  Railroad  Rate  Law, 
the  prevention  of  railroad  rebates  and  discriminations,  the 


280  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

enforcement  of  the  Anti-trust  Law,  the  Pure  Food  Law,  the 
Meat  Inspection  Law,  the  general  supervision  and  control  of 
transportation  companies,  the  conservation  of  natural 
resources,  and  he  proceeded  to  say: 

The  chief  function  of  the  next  Administration,  in  my  judgment,  is 
distinct  from  and  a  progressive  development  of  that  which  has  been  per- 
formed by  President  Roosevelt.  The  chief  function  of  the  next  Adminis- 
tration is  to  complete  and  perfect  the  machinery  by  which  these  standards 
may  be  maintained,  by  which  the  law-breakers  may  be  promptly  restrained 
and  punished,  but  which  shall  operate  with  sufficient  accuracy  and 
dispatch  to  interfere  with  legitimate  business  as  little  as  possible. 

There  spoke  the  voice  of  two  Republican  administrations, 
and  the  promise  of  that  declaration  has  been  faithfully 
observed  with  painstaking  and  assiduous  care.  The  Repub- 
lican administration  which  is  now  drawing  to  a  close  has 
engaged  in  completing  and  perfecting  the  machinery,  in 
applying  the  standards  and  working  out  the  practical  results 
of  established  Republican  policies,  including  also  the  Mc- 
Kinley  policies  of  a  protective  tariff  and  sound  finance. 
Service  of  this  kind  is  not  spectacular.  It  receives  little 
public  attention  and  little  credit  until  the  public  mind  is 
turned  to  a  careful  study  of  the  subject,  but  it  is  of  the  highest 
importance.  Great  constructive  national  policies  are  not 
established  by  simple  declaration  or  mere  legislation  or  in  a 
single  day  or  in  a  single  year.  They  always  change  conditions 
in  order  to  better  them.  They  encounter  inveterate  abuses. 
They  are  opposed  and  evaded  in  practice.  They  require  to 
be  applied  and  enforced  by  a  strong  hand  and  a  firm  will. 
They  require  to  be  perfected  by  administration  and  supple- 
mental legislation.  Under  Republican  administrations  there 
has  been  one  unbroken,  continuous  course  of  consistent 
policy  and  effective  performance  in  dealing  with  the  evils 
which  have  been  naturally  incident  to  the  amazing  industrial 
changes  of  our  generation,  the  vast  creation  of  new  wealth, 


REPUBLICAN  ADMINISTRATIONS  281 

the  increase  of  our  population  and  the  expansion  of  our  com- 
merce. It  rests  with  the  American  electorate  to  say  whether 
they  will  permit  those  minor  dissatisfactions  which  are 
inseparable  from  all  human  performance  and  the  desire  for 
change  by  which  all  men  are  sometimes  affected,  to  obscure  in 
their  judgments  the  wisdom  of  continuing  the  execution  of 
these  policies  and  the  evil  of  chartering  another  and  untried 
party  for  a  new  departure  in  governmental  experiment. 

The  Republican  party  stands  now,  as  McKinley  stood, 
for  a  protective  tariff,  while  the  Democratic  party  stands 
against  the  principle  of  protection  and  for  a  tariff  for  revenue 
only.  We  stand  not  for  the  abuses  of  the  tariff  but  for  the 
beneficent  uses.  No  tariff  can  be  devised  so  moderate,  so 
reasonable,  that  it  will  not  be  rejected  by  the  Democratic 
party,  provided  its  duties  be  adjusted  with  reference  to  labor 
cost  so  as  to  protect  American  products  against  being  driven 
out  of  the  market  by  foreign  under-selling  made  possible 
through  the  lower  rate  of  wages  in  other  countries.  The 
American  foreign  merchant  service  has  been  driven  off  the 
face  of  the  waters  because  with  American  sailors'  wages  and 
the  American  standard  of  living  it  could  not  compete  with 
foreign  shipping.  The  Democratic  party  proposes  to  put 
American  mills  and  factories  and  mines  in  the  same  position, 
and  the  American  people  have  now  to  say  whether  they  wish 
that  to  be  done. 

I  have  said  that  we  do  not  stand  for  the  abuses  of  the 
tariff.  The  chief  cause  of  abuse  has  been  that  we  have 
outgrown  our  old  method  of  tariff-making.  Our  produc- 
tive industries  have  become  too  vast  and  complicated,  our 
commercial  relations  too  extensive,  for  any  committee  of 
Congress  of  itself  to  get  at  the  facts  to  which  the  principle  of 
protection  may  be  properly  applied.  The  Republican  party 
proposes  to  remedy  this  defective  method  through  having 
the  facts  ascertained  by  an  impartial  commission  through 


282  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

thorough,  scientific  investigation,  so  that  the  President  and 
Congress  shall  have  the  basis  for  the  just  application  of  the 
principle  of  protection.  The  Republican  Congress  included 
in  the  Payne- Aldrich  bill  a  clause  under  which  the  President 
had  authority  to  appoint  such  a  board  to  make  such  inves- 
tigations and  report  the  results  to  him.  The  President 
appointed  the  board.  Its  members  are  drawn  from  both 
political  parties.  Their  competency,  integrity,  and  fairness 
are  unquestioned.  They  have  reported  upon  the  woolen 
schedule;  they  have  reported  upon  the  cotton  schedule. 
The  President  has  transmitted  their  findings  to  Congress. 
The  Democratic  House  of  Representatives  ignores  and  repu- 
diates them.  In  January,  1911,  the  last  Republican  House 
of  Representatives  passed  a  bill  to  create  a  tariff  commission 
with  much  broader  and  more  effective  powers  for  compell- 
ing the  attendance  of  witnesses  and  securing  information, 
charged  to  report  its  findings  to  the  Congress.  The  bill 
passed  the  Senate  with  some  amendment  but  it  was  delayed 
there  by  an  avowed  Democratic  filibuster  until  it  reached 
the  House  so  late  in  the  session  that  a  vote  upon  it  was  pre- 
vented by  another  Democratic  filibuster  in  the  House.  Now 
the  House  is  Democratic  and  the  Tariff  Commission  bill  is 
dead.  The  Democratic  party  does  not  want  the  facts  upon 
which  a  just  protective  measure  can  be  framed,  because  it 
means  that  there  shall  be  no  protection  for  American  indus- 
tries. In  the  last  session  and  in  the  present  session  of  Con- 
gress the  Democratic  House  has  framed  and  passed  a  series 
of  tariff  bills  for  revenue  only,  with  complete  indifference  to 
the  absolute  destruction  that  their  enactment  would  bring 
upon  great  American  industries.  Some  of  them  have  fallen 
by  the  wayside  in  the  Senate  and  some  of  them  have  gone  to 
the  President  to  meet  his  wise  and  courageous  veto.  The 
American  people  have  now  to  pass,  not  upon  the  abuses  of 


REPUBLICAN  ADMINISTRATIONS  283 

the  tariff,  but  upon  the  fundamental  question  between  the 
two  systems  of  tariff -making. 

The  national  currency,  which  the  election  of  McKinley 
rescued  from  disaster  at  the  hands  of  a  Free  Silver  Democ- 
racy, still  rests  upon  the  Civil  War  basis  of  government 
bonds,  and  is  no  longer  adapted  to  our  changed  conditions. 
It  is  inelastic;  its  volume  does  not  expand  and  contract 
according  to  legitimate  demands  of  business.  It  subjects  us 
to  constant  danger  of  panics  which  begin  in  speculation  and 
end  in  paralyzing  business.  It  facilitates  and  promotes  the 
arbitrary  control  by  a  small  group  of  banks  and  bankers  with 
enormous  capital,  and  tends  to  an  undue  concentration  of  the 
money  of  the  country  in  a  few  great  money  centers.  Any 
possible  remedy  involves  the  study  of  world-wide  finance, 
because  we  are  no  longer  isolated  and  money  flows  from  city 
to  city  and  country  to  country  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of 
demand  and  supply  and  the  attraction  of  interest  rates.  No 
Congress  could  by  its  ordinary  methods  get  beyond  the  sur- 
face of  the  vast  and  complicated  problem,  yet  the  working 
out  of  a  new  system  adapted  to  American  conditions  is  of 
vital  importance  to  the  prosperity  of  the  country  and  the 
security  of  every  business  and  of  every  man  whose  support 
is  directly  or  indirectly  dependent  upon  American  business. 
For  the  solution  of  this  question  the  policy  of  the  Republican 
party  established  a  Monetary  Commission,  which  has  made 
a  most  thorough  and  exhaustive  study  of  the  financial 
systems  of  all  civilized  nations,  of  their  relations  to  our  own 
system,  and  the  needs  of  American  business.  The  Com- 
mission has  reported  a  bill  for  the  establishment  of  a  new 
system  of  reserve  associations  under  which  the  currency  will 
be  elastic,  the  business  of  the  country  will  find  ready  sale  for 
its  commercial  paper,  the  people  of  the  country  at  large  will 
exercise  control  instead  of  a  little  group  of  large  bankers,  and 


284  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

the  danger  of  panics  will  disappear.  The  President  has  rec- 
ommended the  conclusions  of  the  Commission  to  the  Con- 
gress, where  the  proposed  bill  is  under  consideration.  It  is 
for  the  interest  of  every  business  man  in  the  United  States 
that  the  party  controlling  the  government  shall  not  be 
changed  until  this  policy  has  been  carried  into  execution. 

In  order  that  the  burdens  of  government  support  may  in 
time  of  need  be  more  justly  proportioned  to  the  means  of 
our  citizens,  the  last  Republican  Congress  submitted  to 
the  legislatures  of  the  states  an  income  tax  amendment  of  the 
Constitution,  and  at  the  same  time,  upon  the  recommendation 
of  the  President,  enacted  a  law  —  which  has  been  sustained 
by  the  Supreme  Court  —  imposing  a  tax  upon  corporations, 
measured  by  their  income,  so  that  this  vast  fund  of  invested 
capital  may  bear  its  fair  share  of  the  public  burdens.  At  the 
rate  of  only  one  per  cent  upon  corporate  income,  the  receipts 
from  this  source  during  the  past  year  amounted  to  over 
thirty  million  dollars. 

Upon  the  recommendation  of  the  President  the  powers  of 
the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  have  been  greatly 
enlarged  and  their  control  over  railroad  rates  and  railroad 
service  made  more  effective.  Railroad  rebates  have  been 
vigorously  prosecuted  and  the  imposition  of  large  fines  has 
substantially  ended  the  practice.  Upon  prosecutions  of  rail- 
road discriminations  and  fraudulent  importations  at  the 
custom  house,  under  the  vigorous  treatment  of  the  Treas- 
ury Department  and  the  Department  of  Justice,  the  fines 
and  recoveries  of  the  past  three  years  have  amounted  to  over 
nine  million  dollars. 

The  prosecution  of  trusts  and  combinations  in  violation 
of  the  Sherman  Act  has  proceeded  with  extraordinary  vigor 
and  success.  The  Standard  Oil  Company  has  been  dissolved 
by  a  suit  begun  under  Roosevelt  and  brought  to  a  successful 
conclusion  under  Taft,  through  a  judgment  hi  exact  accord- 


REPUBLICAN  ADMINISTRATIONS  285 

ance  with  the  prayer  of  the  complainant.  The  Tobacco 
Company  has  been  dissolved  and  its  property  scattered 
among  fourteen  different  companies,  with  stringent  injunc- 
tions against  common  control,  which,  in  the  unanimous 
opinion  of  the  four  judges  of  the  Circuit  Court  of  Appeals, 
were  fully  adequate  to  accomplish  the  relief  demanded.  The 
beef  packers,  the  wholesale  grocers,  the  lumber  dealers,  the 
wire  makers,  the  window-glass  pool,  the  electric  lamp  com- 
bination, the  bath  tub  trust,  the  shoe  machinery  trust,  the 
foreign  steamship  pool,  the  Sugar  Company,  the  Steel  Cor- 
poration, the  Harvester  Company  —  all  have  been  made  to 
feel  the  heavy  hand  of  the  law  through  suits  or  indictments 
against  restraints  and  monopolies. 

Throughout  that  wide  field  in  which  the  conditions  of 
modern  industrial  life  require  that  government  shall  inter- 
vene in  the  name  of  social  justice  for  the  protection  of  the 
wage-earner,  the  Republican  national  administrations  in 
succession  have  done  their  full,  enlightened,  and  progressive 
duty  to  the  limit  of  the  national  power  under  the  Constitu- 
tion. The  Act  of  March  4,  1907,  to  regulate  the  hours  of 
service  of  railroad  employees,  passed  under  the  Roosevelt 
administration,  has  been  sustained  in  the  Supreme  Court 
under  the  Taft  administration  and  has  been  enforced  by 
more  than  fifteen  hundred  prosecutions  during  the  past  three 
years.  A  valid  and  effective  Employers  Liability  Act  apply- 
ing to  all  interstate  commerce  was  passed  by  a  Republican 
Congress  on  April  5, 1910,  and  under  the  Republican  admin- 
istration its  constitutionality  has  been  sustained  in  the 
Supreme  Court.  Upon  the  President's  recommendation  a 
joint  commission  was  created  by  Congress  to  study  the  sub- 
ject of  workmen's  compensation  for  injuries.  It  was  com- 
posed of  members  of  both  Houses,  with  a  representative  of 
the  railroads  and  a  representative  of  labor,  and  after  exhaus- 
tive examination  and  hearings  the  commission  framed  a  bill 


286  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

which  was  approved  by  all  the  great  railroad  labor  organiza- 
tions and  which  was  passed  by  a  Republican  Senate  at  the 
present  session  against  the  opposition  of  a  majority  of  the 
Democratic  Senators.  That  bill  still  slumbers  in  the  Demo- 
cratic Judiciary  Committee  of  the  House.  The  Safety  Appli- 
ance Act  has  been  strengthened  by  increased  powers  in  the 
Interstate  Commerce  Commission  and  has  been  enforced  by 
nearly  a  thousand  prosecutions  during  the  past  three  years. 
The  joint  representative  of  the  great  orders  of  Railway 
Conductors,  Railway  Trainmen,  Locomotive  Engineers,  and 
Locomotive  Firemen  and  Enginemen,  says  in  his  report  on 
national  legislation  for  1911  regarding  that  department  of 
the  present  national  administration  especially  concerned  in 
the  enforcement  of  these  laws: 

Justice  to  one  who  has  been  faithful  to  his  trust  demands  from  every 
representative  of  the  railroad  men  of  the  United  States  some  recognition 
of  the  splendid  work  of  the  Attorney-General  in  the  enforcement  of  all  the 
acts  of  Congress  relating  to  the  safety  of  railroad  employees,  and  limiting 
their  hours  of  service.  It  has  been  work  faithfully  and  successfully  per- 
formed. Both  in  the  defense  of  our  rights  in  the  courts  and  in  assistance 
rendered  us  in  the  preparation  of  proposed  legislation,  his  work  has  been  of 
a  high  order  of  ability  and  has  been  tendered  in  a  spirit  of  fidelity  to  the 
basic  principles  of  fan*  play  to  all  men. 

The  newly  created  Bureau  of  Mines  and  the  newly  author- 
ized Children's  Bureau  mark  the  limit  to  which  the  National 
Government  can  go  towards  improving  the  conditions  of 
intrastate  labor  without  usurping  the  powers  of  the  states. 
The  Pure  Food  Law  has  been  enforced  with  vigor  and  effec- 
tiveness. There  have  been  over  five  hundred  prosecutions 
for  violations  of  that  law  within  the  past  year  and  more 
than  a  thousand  cases  within  the  past  three  years.  More 
than  five  hundred  shipments  of  adulterated  and  misbranded 
foods  and  drugs  have  been  condemned  and  forfeited,  and 
enormous  quantities  of  injurious  food  material  have  been 
destroyed. 


REPUBLICAN  ADMINISTRATIONS  287 

The  conservation  of  natural  resources  has  been  in  the 
hands  of  its  friends.  The  process  of  examining  and  separat- 
ing the  timber  and  the  agricultural  land  in  the  great  forest 
reserves,  established  at  the  close  of  the  last  Administration, 
has  proceeded  under  the  present  Administration  in  accordance 
with  the  original  plan.  The  study  of  the  water  resources 
of  the  country  and  the  recording  of  the  flow  of  streams 
have  gone  on  under  the  Geological  Survey.  Classification 
and  appraisal  of  coal  lands  and  their  restoration  to  entry  at 
discriminating  prices  based  upon  the  classification  has  been 
extended  to  over  sixteen  million  acres  of  a  total  valuation 
of  over  seven  hundred  and  twelve  million  dollars.  The  enor- 
mous petroleum  deposits  and  phosphate  deposits  and  water 
power  sites  belonging  to  the  Government  have  been  examined 
and  classified  and  the  data  prepared  for  the  needed  legislation 
to  regulate  their  disposition.  Construction  under  the  arid 
land  reclamation  projects  has  been  pressed  forward,  and 
over  fifty  thousand  people  are  now  living  upon  the  reclaimed 
land. 

Great  reforms  have  been  made  in  the  economy  of  the 
public  service.  A  commission  appointed  by  the  President 
has  been  examining  all  the  departments  of  government 
operating  under  the  antiquated  statutes  passed  generations 
ago  with  a  view  to  applying  in  them  the  labor-saving  and 
money-saving  methods  which  have  made  the  success  of  the 
great  business  establishments  of  our  country.  In  the  Treas- 
ury Department  alone,  where  the  reforms  first  received  their 
effect  and  can  best  be  measured,  over  eighteen  hundred 
places  have  been  abolished,  and  this  with  increased  efficiency 
of  service,  and  without  discharging  any  one  but  simply  by 
not  filling  vacancies  as  they  occurred.  The  savings  effected 
in  the  administration  of  this  one  department  amount  approxi- 
mately to  $2,631,000  per  annum.  The  same  policy  in  the 
Post  Office  Department  has  made  that  department  self- 


288  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

supporting  for  the  first  time  in  thirty  years,  and  has  changed 
a  deficit  of  $17,479,770.47  in  1909,  caused  especially  by  the 
increased  cost  of  rural  free  delivery,  to  a  surplus  of  $219,- 
118.12  in  1911.  In  the  meantime  the  great  Republican  policy 
of  rural  free  delivery  has  been  advanced  so  that  the  rural  free 
delivery  routes  now  number  42,199,  covering  a  mileage  of 
1,210,447  miles.  In  the  meantime  also  the  new  Republican 
policy  of  the  postal  savings  system  has  been  successfully 
inaugurated  under  the  Act  of  June  25, 1910,  beginning  experi- 
mentally with  a  few  offices,  and  now,  after  eleven  months  of 
operation,  extending  to  seventy-five  hundred  presidential 
post  offices  and  $11,000,000  of  deposits. 

The  army  has  been  made  more  efficient.  The  great  pro- 
cess of  training  not  only  the  regular  army  but  the  militia  by 
means  of  officers  of  instruction  and  joint  operations  has  been 
pressed  forward  to  the  end  that  if  war  unfortunately  comes 
upon  us  we  shall  have,  for  the  first  time  in  our  history,  a  great 
body  of  trained  American  citizens  competent  to  act  as  officers 
of  the  volunteer  force  upon  which  we  must  so  largely  depend 
for  our  military  defense.  The  test  of  mobilization  of  the 
regular  army  in  Texas  during  the  summer  of  1911,  with  its 
rapidity  of  movement  and  freedom  from  disease,  has  exhib- 
ited a  record  of  competency  and  ability  most  reassuring  and 
satisfactory. 

The  navy  has  improved  its  organization  and  decreased  its 
expenses,  has  increased  its  preparedness  and  military  effi- 
ciency, has  improved  its  marksmanship  and  skill  in  seaman- 
ship and  evolution,  and  has  reorganized  and  reduced  the  cost 
of  the  system  of  construction,  repair,  and  supply. 

The  execution  of  the  regular  and  established  program  of 
adding  two  battleships  to  the  fleet  annually  to  take  the  place 
of  the  old  ships  which  from  year  to  year  grow  obsolete,  and 
to  maintain  the  position  of  our  navy  among  those  of  the  great 
powers,  has  met  with  a  reverse  in  the  refusal  of  the  Demo- 


REPUBLICAN  ADMINISTRATIONS  289 

cratic  House  of  Representatives  to  appropriate  any  money 
for  the  construction  of  battleships,  and  the  question  now 
stands  between  the  Republican  Senate  and  the  Demo- 
cratic House  as  to  whether  our  navy  shall  be  maintained  or 
shall  be  permitted  to  fall  back  to  a  level  with  the  weaker  and 
unconsidered  countries  of  the  world.  What  is  the  will  of  the 
American  people  on  that  question  ? 

The  construction  of  the  Panama  Canal  has  been  pressed 
forward  with  renewed  evidences  under  the  concentrated 
observation  of  all  the  civilized  world,  that  America  possesses 
constructive  genius,  organizing  power,  and  habits  of  honest 
administration,  equal  to  the  greatest  undertakings.  It  is 
manifest  now  that  the  work  will  be  done  in  advance  of  the 
time  fixed  and  within  the  cost  estimated,  and  that  during  the 
coming  year  it  will  be  substantially  completed.  Will  not 
the  American  people  consider  whether  they  have  no  grateful 
appreciation  of  the  honor  brought  to  us  all  by  the  great  thing 
that  has  been  done  on  the  Isthmus  ?  When  the  wonderful 
procession  of  ships  takes  its  way  for  the  first  time  through 
the  canal  between  the  waters  of  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific, 
will  the  people  of  America  wish  that  the  honors  of  that 
greater  than  a  Roman  triumph  be  given,  not  to  the  men  who 
executed  the  great  design,  but  to  the  men  who  opposed  and 
scoffed  and  hindered  and  sought  to  frustrate  the  enterprise, 
until  in  spite  of  them  its  success  was  assured  ? 

In  our  foreign  relations,  controversies  of  almost  a  hundred 
years  over  the  Northeastern  fisheries  have  been  settled  by 
arbitration  at  The  Hague.  The  attempt  to  preserve  the  fur 
seal  life  of  the  Alaskan  islands,  in  which  we  were  defeated 
twenty  years  ago  in  the  Behring  Sea  arbitration,  has  been 
brought  to  success  by  diplomacy  in  the  Fur  Seal  Treaty  with 
Great  Britain,  Japan,  and  Russia.  The  delicate  questions 
arising  from  the  termination  of  our  treaty  regulating  trade 
and  travel  with  Japan  have  been  disposed  of  by  a  new  treaty 


290  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

satisfactory  to  both  nations  and  to  the  people  of  both  coasts 
of  our  own  nation.  Our  tariff  relations  with  all  the  world 
under  the  maximum  and  minimum  clause  of  the  Payne- 
Aldrich  bill  have  been  readjusted.  The  Departments  of 
State  and  Commerce  and  Labor  have  promoted  the  extension 
of  American  commerce  so  that  our  foreign  exports  have 
grown  from  $1,491,744,641,  in  1905,  to  $2,013,549,025,  in 
1911,  and  the  balance  of  trade  in  our  favor  for  1911  was 
$522,094,094.  American  rights  have  been  asserted  and 
maintained  and  peace  with  all  the  world  has  been  preserved 
and  strengthened. 

With  this  record  of  consistent  policy  and  faithful  service 
the  Republican  party  can  rest  with  confidence  on  its  title  to 
command  the  approval  of  the  American  people.  We  have 
a  right  to  say  that  we  can  be  trusted  to  preserve  and  main- 
tain the  American  system  of  free  representative  government 
handed  down  to  us  by  our  fathers.  At  our  hands  it  will  be 
no  empty  form  when  the  officers  of  the  National  Government 
subscribe  the  solemn  oath  required  of  them  by  law,  "  That  I 
will  support  and  defend  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
against  all  enemies,  foreign  and  domestic;  that  I  will  bear 
true  faith  and  allegiance  to  the  same." 

We  shall  not  apologize  for  American  institutions.  We 
cherish  with  gratitude  and  reverence  the  memory  of  the  great 
men  who  devised  the  American  constitutional  system  —  their 
unselfish  patriotism,  their  love  of  liberty  and  justice,  their 
lofty  conception  of  human  rights,  their  deep  insight  into  the 
strength  and  the  weakness  of  human  nature,  their  wise 
avoidance  of  the  dangers  which  had  wrecked  all  preceding 
attempts  at  popular  government,  their  breadth  of  view  which 
adapted  the  system  they  devised  to  the  progress  and  develop- 
ment of  a  great  people.  We  will  be  loyal  to  the  principles 
they  declared  and  to  the  spirit  of  liberty  and  progress,  of 


REPUBLICAN  ADMINISTRATIONS  291 

justice  and  security,  which  they  breathed  into  that  immortal 
instrument. 

No  government  which  must  be  administered  by  weak  and 
fallible  men  can  be  perfect,  but  we  may  justly  claim  for  our 
government  under  the  Constitution  that  for  a  century  and  a 
quarter  it  has  worked  out  the  best  results  for  individual 
liberty  and  progress  in  civilization  yet  achieved  by  govern- 
mental institutions.  Under  the  peace  and  security  which  it 
has  afforded,  not  only  has  our  country  become  vastly  rich 
but  there  has  been  a  diffusion  of  wealth  which  should  inspire 
cheerful  confidence  in  the  future.  Witness  the  9,597,185 
separate  savings  bank  accounts,  with  $4,212,583,598  de- 
posits in  the  year  1911.  Witness  the  6,361,502  farms,  and 
the  value  of  farms  and  farm  property  of  $40,991,449,090  in  the 
year  1910,  a  value  more  than  doubled  between  1900  and 
1910.  Witness  the  stream  of  immigrants  pouring  in  from  all 
countries  of  the  earth  to  share  the  happier  lot  of  labor  in  our 
fortunate  land  —  9,673,973  of  them  since  1901.  Nowhere 
on  earth  is  there  such  unfettered  scope  for  the  independence 
of  individual  manhood;  nowhere  greater  security  and  com- 
petency for  the  family  home;  nowhere  more  universal  advan- 
tages of  education  for  rich  and  poor  alike;  nowhere  such 
universal  response  to  all  demands  of  charity  and  noble  plans 
for  relieving  the  distress  and  improving  the  condition  of  man- 
kind; nowhere  a  more  ready  quickening  of  public  spirit  under 
the  influence  of  high  ideals;  nowhere  the  true  ends  of  govern- 
ment more  fully  secured,  than  in  the  life  of  America  today 
under  the  government  of  the  Constitution. 

We  will  maintain  the  power  and  honor  of  the  nation,  but 
we  will  observe  those  limitations  which  the  Constitution  sets 
up  for  the  preservation  of  local  self-government.  This  coun- 
try is  so  large  and  the  conditions  of  life  are  so  varied  that  it 
would  be  intolerable  to  have  the  local  and  domestic  affairs 


292  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

of  our  home  communities,  which  involve  no  national  rights, 
controlled  by  majorities  made  up  in  other  states  thousands 
of  miles  away,  or  by  the  officials  of  a  central  government. 

We  will  perform  the  duties  and  exercise  the  authority  of 
the  offices  with  which  we  may  be  invested,  but  we  will 
observe  and  require  all  officials  to  observe  those  constitu- 
tional limitations  which  prescribe  the  boundaries  of  official 
power.  However  wise,  however  able,  however  patriotic,  a 
congress  or  an  executive  may  be,  however  convinced  they 
may  be  that  the  doing  of  a  particular  thing  would  be  bene- 
ficial to  the  public  —  if  that  thing  be  done  by  usurping  the 
powers  confided  to  another  department  or  another  officer  it 
but  opens  the  door  for  the  destruction  of  liberty.  The  door 
opened  for  the  patriotic  and  well-meaning  to  exercise  power 
not  conferred  upon  them  by  law  is  the  door  opened  also  to 
the  self-seeking  and  ambitious.  There  can  be  no  free  govern- 
ment in  which  official  power  is  not  limited,  and  the  limitations 
upon  official  power  can  be  preserved  only  by  rigorously 
insisting  upon  their  observance. 

We  will  make  and  vigorously  enforce  laws  for  the  promo- 
tion of  public  interests  and  the  attainment  of  public  ends, 
but  we  will  observe  those  great  rules  of  right  conduct  which 
our  fathers  embodied  in  the  limitations  of  the  Constitution. 
We  will  hold  sacred  the  declarations  and  prohibitions  of  the 
Bill  of  Rights,  which  protect  the  life  and  liberty  and  prop- 
erty of  the  citizen  against  the  power  of  government.  We 
will  keep  the  covenant  that  our  fathers  made,  and  that  we 
have  reaffirmed  from  generation  to  generation,  between  the 
whole  body  of  the  people,  and  every  individual  under  na- 
tional jurisdiction.  It  is  a  covenant  between  overwhelming 
power  and  every  weak  and  defenseless  one,  every  one  who 
relies  upon  the  protection  of  his  country's  laws  for  security  to 
enjoy  the  fruits  of  industry  and  thrift,  every  one  who  would 
worship  God  according  to  his  conscience,  however  his  faith 


REPUBLICAN  ADMINISTRATIONS  293 

may  differ  from  that  of  his  fellows,  every  one  who  asserts  his 
manhood's  right  of  freedom  in  speech  and  action  —  a  solemn 
covenant  that  between  the  weak  individual  and  all  the  power 
of  the  people  and  the  people's  officers  shall  forever  stand  the 
eternal  principles  of  justice  declared,  defined,  and  made 
practically  effective  by  specific  rules  in  those  provisions  which 
we  call  the  limitations  of  the  Constitution.  That  covenant 
between  power  and  weakness  is  the  chief  basis  of  American 
prosperity,  American  progress,  and  American  liberty.  It  is 
because  we  have  always  observed  it  that  we  are  not  torn  by 
dissension  and  revolution  and  civil  war  and  alternating 
anarchy  and  despotism  like  so  many  of  our  sister  republics 
whose  unhappy  fortune  we  deplore.  With  all  our  pride  in 
our  vast  material  prosperity,  in  our  successful  institutions 
and  our  advance  in  civilization,  we  would  not  be  boastful  and 
vainglorious,  for  we  come  of  God-fearing  people,  and  we 
have  learned  the  truth  taught  by  religion  that  all  men  are 
prone  to  error,  are  subject  to  temptation,  are  led  astray  by 
impulse.  We  know  that  this  is  as  true  hi  government  as  it  is 
in  private  life,  for  the  freedom  that  some  of  OUT  fathers 
sought  was  freedom  of  conscience  from  the  control  of  majori- 
ties; and  our  party  was  born  in  protest  against  the  extension 
of  a  system  of  human  slavery  approved  and  maintained  by 
majorities.  We  know  that  there  is  no  safe  course  in  the  life 
of  men  or  of  nations  except  to  establish  and  to  follow  de- 
clared principles  of  conduct.  There  is  a  divine  principle  of 
justice  which  men  cannot  make  or  unmake,  which  is  above 
all  governments,  above  all  legislatures,  above  all  majorities. 
Conformity  to  it  is  a  condition  of  national  life.  The  Ameri- 
can people  have  set  up  this  eternal  law  of  justice  as  the  guide 
for  their  national  action.  They  have  formulated  and  ex- 
pressed it  in  practical  rules  of  conduct  established  by  them 
impersonally,  abstractly,  when  no  interest  or  impulse  or 
specific  desire  was  present  to  sway  their  judgment.  Upon 


294  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

submission  and  conformity  to  these  rules  of  justice  depends 
our  existence  as  a  nation;  and  as  we  love  our  country  and 
hope  for  the  continuance  of  its  peace  and  liberty  to  our 
children's  children,  we  should  humbly  and  reverently  seek 
for  strength  and  wisdom  to  abide  by  the  principles  of 
the  Constitution  against  the  days  of  our  temptation  and 
weakness. 

With  a  deep  sense  of  duty  so  to  order  our  country's  govern- 
ment that  the  blessings  which  God  has  vouchsafed  to  us  may 
be  continued,  we  can  be  trusted  to  keep  the  pledge  given 
to  the  American  people  by  the  last  Republican  national 
convention: 

The  Republican  Party  will  uphold  at  all  times  the  authority  and  integ- 
rity of  the  courts,  state  and  federal,  and  will  ever  insist  that  their  powers 
to  enforce  their  process  and  to  protect  life,  liberty,  and  property  shall  be 
preserved  inviolate. 

We  must  be  true  to  that  pledge,  for  in  no  other  way  can 
our  country  keep  itself  within  the  strait  and  narrow  path 
prescribed  by  the  principles  of  right  conduct  embodied  in  our 
Constitution. 

The  limitations  upon  arbitrary  power,  and  the  prohibitions 
of  the  Bill  of  Rights  which  protect  liberty  and  insure  justice 
cannot  be  enforced  except  through  the  determinations  of  an 
independent  and  courageous  judiciary. 

We  shall  be  true  to  that  Republican  pledge.  The  great 
courts  in  which  Marshall,  and  Story,  and  Harlan  sat  will  not 
be  degraded  from  their  high  office.  Their  judges  will  not  be 
punished  for  honest  decisions;  their  judgments  will  be  re- 
spected and  obeyed.  The  keystone  of  this  balanced  and 
stable  structure  of  government,  established  by  our  fathers, 
will  not  be  shattered  by  Republican  hands;  for  we  stand 
with  Alexander  Hamilton,  who  said,  in  The  Federalist: 

For  I  agree  that  there  is  no  liberty  where  the  power  of  judging  be  not 
separate  from  the  legislative  and  executive  powers: 


BEPUBLICAN  ADMINISTRATIONS  295 

we  stand  with  John  Marshall,  who  said,  in  Marbury  vs. 
Madison : 

To  what  purpose  are  powers  limited,  and  to  what  purpose  is  that  limita- 
tion committed  to  writing,  if  these  limitations  may,  at  any  time,  be  passed 
by  those  intended  to  be  restrained  ? 

and  we  stand  with  Abraham  Lincoln,  who  said,  in  his  First 
Inaugural : 

A  majority  held  in  restraint  by  constitutional  checks  and  limitations 
and  always  changing  easily  with  deliberate  changes  of  popular  opinion  and 
sentiment,  is  the  only  true  sovereign  of  a  free  people.  Whoever  rejects  it 
does  of  necessity  fly  to  anarchy  or  despotism. 


THE  RENOMINATION  OF  PRESIDENT  TAFT 

SPEECH   AS   CHAIRMAN  OF  THE   REPUBLICAN   NATIONAL 

CONVENTION  OF  1912,  NOTIFYING  MR.  TAFT  OF  HIS 

NOMINATION,  WASHINGTON,  AUGUST  1,  1912 

As  chairman  of  the  Republican  National  Convention  of  1912,  Mr.  Root  was 
charged  by  the  convention  to  convey  formal  notification  of  his  renomination  as  the 
Republican  candidate  for  President  of  the  United  States  to  William  H.  Taft.  This 
official  notification  was  conveyed  to  the  President  at  the  White  House  on  August  1, 
1912,  in  the  following  address: 

MR.  PRESIDENT,  the  committee  of  notification  here 
present  has  the  honor  to  advise  you  formally  that  on 
the  twenty-second  day  of  June  last  you  were  regularly  and 
duly  nominated  by  the  national  convention  of  the  Republican 
party  to  be  the  Republican  candidate  for  President  for  the 
term  beginning  March  4,  1913. 

For  the  second  tune  in  the  history  of  the  Republican  party 
a  part  of  the  delegates  have  refused  to  be  bound  by  the  action 
of  the  convention.  Now,  as  on  the  former  occasion,  the 
irreconcilable  minority  declares  its  intention  to  support 
either  your  Democratic  opponent  or  a  third  candidate.  The 
reason  assigned  for  this  course  is  dissatisfaction  with  the 
decision  of  certain  contests  in  the  making  up  of  the  temporary 
roll  of  the  convention.  Those  contests  were  decided  by  the 
tribunal  upon  which  the  law  that  has  governed  the  Republi- 
can party  for  more  than  forty  years  imposed  the  duty  of 
deciding  such  contests.  So  long  as  those  decisions  were  made 
honestly  and  in  good  faith,  all  persons  were  bound  to  accept 
them  as  conclusive  in  the  making  up  of  the  temporary  roll 
of  the  convention,  and  neither  in  the  facts  and  arguments 
produced  before  the  national  committee,  the  committee  on 
credentials  and  the  convention  itself,  nor  otherwise,  does 

897 


298  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

there  appear  just  ground  for  impeaching  the  honesty  and 
good  faith  of  the  committee's  decisions.  Both  the  making 
up  of  the  temporary  roll  and  the  rights  accorded  to  the  per- 
sons upon  that  roll,  whose  seats  were  contested,  were  in 
accordance  with  the  long-established  and  unquestioned  rules 
of  law  governing  the  party,  and  founded  upon  justice  and 
common  sense.  Your  title  to  the  nomination  is  as  clear  and 
unimpeachable  as  the  title  of  any  candidate  of  any  party 
since  political  conventions  began. 

Your  selection  has  a  broader  basis  than  a  mere  expression 
of  choice  between  different  party  leaders  representing  the 
same  ideas.  You  have  been  nominated  because  you  stand 
preeminently  for  certain  fixed  and  essential  principles  which 
the  Republican  party  maintains.  You  believe  in  preserv- 
ing the  constitutional  government  of  the  United  States.  You 
believe  in  the  rule  of  law  rather  than  the  rule  of  men. 
You  realize  that  the  only  safety  for  nations,  as  for  individ- 
uals, is  to  establish  and  abide  by  declared  principles  of  action. 
You  are  in  sympathy  with  the  great  practical  rules  of  right 
conduct  that  the  American  people  have  set  up  for  their  own 
guidance  and  self-restraint  in  the  limitations  of  the  Constitu- 
tion —  the  limitations  upon  governmental  and  official  power 
essential  to  the  preservation  of  liberty  and  justice.  You 
know  that  to  sweep  away  these  wise  rules  of  self-restraint 
would  be  not  progress,  but  decadence.  You  know  that  the 
great  declarations  of  principle  in  our  Constitution  cannot  be 
made  an  effectual  guide  to  conduct  in  any  other  way  than  by 
judicial  judgment  upon  attempts  to  violate  them;  and  you 
maintain  the  independence,  dignity,  and  authority  of  the 
courts  of  the  United  States.  You  are  for  progress  along  all 
the  lines  of  national  development,  but  for  progress  which 
still  preserves  the  good  we  already  have  and  holds  fast  to 
those  essential  elements  of  American  institutions  which  have 
made  our  country  prosperous  and  great  and  free.  You  rep- 


THE  RENOMINATION  OF  PRESIDENT  TAFT    299 

resent  the  spirit  of  kindly  consideration  by  every  American 
citizen  toward  all  his  fellows,  respect  for  the  right  of  adverse 
opinion,  peaceable  methods  of  settling  differences  —  the 
spirit  and  the  method  which  make  ordered  and  peaceful 
self-government  possible,  as  distinguished  from  intolerance 
and  hatred  and  violence. 

In  respect  to  all  these  things  our  country  is  threatened  from 
many  sides.  It  is  your  high  privilege  to  be  the  standard- 
bearer  for  the  cause  in  which  you  believe;  and  in  that  cause 
of  peace  and  justice  and  liberty,  the  millions  of  your  country- 
men who  believe  as  you  do  will  stand  with  you,  and  the  great 
party  which  was  born  in  the  struggle  for  constitutional 
freedom  will  support  you. 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  IN 
OPPOSITION 

ADDRESS  AS  TEMPORARY  CHAIRMAN  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN 

STATE  CONVENTION  AT  SARATOGA  SPRINGS 

NEW  YORK,  AUGUST  18,  1914 

THIS  New  York  Republican  State  Convention  meets 
under  novel  conditions.  For  the  first  time,  the  state 
convention  has  no  power  to  nominate  candidates  for  office. 
Under  the  new  primary  law  the  candidates  will  be  selected 
by  the  voters  of  the  party  at  the  primary  election  on  the 
twenty-eighth  of  September.  The  first  and  most  obvious 
duty  of  the  Republicans  of  the  state  and  of  the  members  of 
this  convention  representing  them,  is  loyal  and  effective 
acceptance  of  the  primary  election  law.  It  is  true  that  the 
law  is  defective.  In  some  respects  it  reads  as  if  it  had  been 
framed  with  a  view  to  get  credit  for  a  popular  act  rather  than 
with  a  view  to  make  a  practical  working  statute.  In  some 
respects  the  act  seems  as  if  it  were  designed  to  perpetuate 
and  strengthen  the  control  of  political  managers  rather  than 
to  give  the  voters  real  and  effective  freedom  of  choice.  Prob- 
ably the  law  can  be  much  improved;  but  the  only  way  to 
bring  about  the  improvement  is  to  submit  the  law  to  the  test 
of  practical  application,  to  put  it  in  operation  in  good  faith, 
and  then  whatever  defects  there  are,  will  become  manifest 
in  such  a  way  that  it  will  be  easy  to  cure  them. 

Nevertheless  this  convention  was  necessary.  The  primary 
law  provides  that  any  party  may  hold  "  party  conventions 
to  be  constituted  in  such  manner  and  to  have  such  powers  in 
relation  to  formulating  party  platforms  and  policies  and  the 
transaction  of  business  relating  to  party  affairs  as  the  rules 

301 


302  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

and  regulations  of  the  party  may  provide  not  inconsistent 
with  the  provisions  "  of  the  law.  Such  a  convention  as  this 
statute  contemplates  was  necessary,  first,  to  consider  and 
agree  upon  a  platform  upon  which  the  candidates  of  the 
party,  when  chosen,  are  to  stand  and  by  which  the  people  of 
the  state  may  be  informed  of  the  principles  to  be  applied  in 
government  if  the  Republican  candidates  are  elected.  This 
is  something  which  cannot  be  done  by  the  voters  at  the  pri- 
mary. Their  action  is  limited  by  the  law  to  the  selection  of 
candidates.  It  is  something  which  ought  not  to  be  done  by 
any  self-constituted  and  irresponsible  person  or  group 
assuming  to  act  for  the  party,  but  it  should  be  done  in  the 
open,  by  accredited  representatives  of  all  parts  of  the  state. 
It  cannot  be  done  by  the  candidates  when  selected  because 
that  would  be  a  reversal  of  the  fundamental  idea  of  political 
parties,  which  is  that  the  people  of  a  country  divide  accord- 
ing to  the  differences  of  their  political  views  upon  matters  of 
greatest  importance,  and,  upon  one  side  and  another,  the 
voters  who  agree  among  themselves  upon  these  fundamental 
questions  subordinate  all  minor  differences  of  feeling  and 
opinion  and  unite  to  select  candidates  who  will  give  effect  to 
their  common  judgment.  To  hand  the  party  declaration  of 
principles  over  to  the  candidate  after  his  selection  would  be 
to  deny  the  whole  rational  basis  of  American  party  govern- 
ment, upon  which  this  new  primary  election  law  depends.  It 
would  be  to  make  the  principles  of  the  party  depend  upon  the 
opinions  of  the  candidate  instead  of  having  the  candidate 
stand  upon  the  principles  of  the  party.  And  it  would  trans- 
form our  system  of  parties  into  purely  personal  followings  of 
popular  leaders,  —  which  Heaven  forbid,  because  that  basis 
of  political  action  always  has  been  and  must  be  inconsistent 
with  orderly  and  effective  popular  self-government. 

The  second  duty  which  the  convention  has  to  perform  is  to 
consider,  and  I  assume  to  approve,  the  proposal  of  the 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  IN  OPPOSITION     303 

National  Committee  of  the  party  to  make  representation  in 
national  conventions  conform  more  closely  to  the  Republi- 
can vote  in  the  several  states  and  to  leave  the  method  of 
selecting  the  delegates  to  the  regulation  of  the  Republicans 
in  each  state.  The  most  salient  effect  of  this  change  will  be  a 
considerable  reduction  of  representation  from  the  Southern 
States,  where  a  very  small  Republican  vote  is  cast.  I  assume 
the  proposed  change  will  be  approved  because  the  represen- 
tatives of  the  state  of  New  York  have  steadfastly  voted  for 
such  a  change  in  successive  national  conventions,  and  the 
Saratoga  convention  of  1913  expressly  declared  in  favor  of  it. 
The  reason  for  acting  now  is  that  if  the  rules  are  to  be 
changed  for  the  next  national  convention,  it  must  be  done 
before  the  delegates  to  that  convention  are  elected.  The 
present  rules  of  the  party  regulating  representation  in  na- 
tional conventions  were  adopted  in  1880,  after  much  dis- 
cussion by  the  national  convention,  at  which  the  late  Senator 
George  F.  Hoar  presided,  and  James  A.  Garfield  was  nomi- 
nated for  President.  Those  rules  are  binding  upon  the 
National  Committee.  If  they  remain  unchanged  it  will  be 
the  duty  of  the  National  Committee  to  issue  a  call  in  accord- 
ance with  them  for  the  election  of  delegates  to  the  next 
national  convention,  and  when  the  delegates  have  been 
elected  they  will  be  entitled  to  seats  in  accordance  with  those 
rules.  They  will  constitute  the  convention.  Delegates  can- 
not be  elected  under  one  set  of  rules  upon  one  basis  of  repre- 
sentation and  given  or  denied  seats  under  some  other  rule  and 
upon  a  different  basis  of  representation. 

The  third  duty  of  the  convention  is  to  represent  the  Repub- 
lican voters  of  the  state  in  consulting  about  the  policy  to  be  fol- 
lowed by  the  party  in  selecting  candidates  so  that  the  voters 
may  act  effectively  at  the  primary  election  with  a  common 
purpose  to  secure  party  success  at  the  regular  election.  In 
substance  this  consultation  and  any  conclusions  which  we 


304  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

may  reach,  any  opinions  we  may  express,  any  advice  we  may 
give,  will  relate  to  the  subject  of  geographical  distribution  of 
candidates.  At  the  coming  primary  the  Republicans  of  the 
state  are  to  select  candidates  for  twenty-four  offices  to  be 
filled  by  the  voters  of  the  entire  state.  These  are:  United 
States  Senator,  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Appeals,  Governor, 
Lieutenant-Governor,  Secretary  of  State,  Comptroller,  Attor- 
ney-General, State  Treasurer,  State  Engineer  and  Sur- 
veyor, and  fifteen  delegates-at-large  to  the  constitutional 
convention.  In  so  large  a  state  as  this  and  with  so  many 
offices  to  fill,  it  is  important  to  party  success  that  every 
section  of  the  state  shall  have  the  kind  of  interest  in  the 
ticket  selected  at  the  primary  which  comes  from  having 
upon  it  a  candidate  who  is  known  and  trusted  in  that 
vicinity;  and  it  is  important  for  government  after  the  elec- 
tion that  the  officers  in  the  state  government  and  in  the 
constitutional  convention  shall  be  in  touch  with  all  parts  of 
the  state  and  familiar  with  the  interests  and  opinions  of  all 
the  people  of  the  state.  It  would  be  unfortunate  if  all  these 
candidates  who  are  to  be  selected  should  prove,  as  the  result 
of  the  primary,  to  be  residents  of  one  city  or  county.  Yet 
something  like  that  might  happen  if  in  each  place  the  Repub- 
licans were  to  vote  at  the  primary,  as  they  very  naturally 
might,  for  residents  of  their  own  vicinity,  or  if  the  voters  of 
one  large  place  were  to  vote  in  that  way,  while  the  Republi- 
cans of  all  the  rest  of  the  state  divided  among  a  great  number 
of  candidates.  The  result  of  such  voting  would  be  that  the 
candidates  of  the  one  place  which  voted  solidly  for  its  own 
residents  would  have  a  plurality  among  a  great  multitude  of 
candidates  while  they  were  really  the  choice  of  only  a  small 
minority  of  the  Republicans  of  the  state.  How  to  avoid  such 
a  result  is  a  serious  question.  How  may  these  candidates 
be  distributed  so  that  in  all  parts  of  the  state  there  will  be 
active  personal  interest  in  the  success  of  the  Republican 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  IN  OPPOSITION     305 

ticket  and  so  that  all  parts  of  the  state  will  find  real  knowl- 
edge and  comprehension  of  their  needs  in  the  new  govern- 
ment. Our  opponents  will  have  no  such  trouble.  More 
than  one-half  of  the  normal  Democratic  vote  of  the  state  is 
cast  in  the  city  of  New  York,  and  the  great  mass  of  those 
voters,  following  the  directions  of  their  local  party  organiza- 
tion, will  distribute  the  nominations  as  that  organization 
directs.  The  voters  in  the  Republican  primary,  scattered 
through  sixty-two  counties,  unbossed,  will  follow  nobody's 
direction,  but  will  act  each  according  to  his  own  judgment, 
and  it  will  be  necessary  that  they  shall  themselves  consider 
what  will  be  the  effect  of  their  action  in  regard  to  the  distri- 
bution of  candidates.  There  should  be  comparatively  little 
difficulty  in  this  respect  in  making  the  nominations  for  the 
chief  offices,  the  Governor,  the  United  States  Senator,  and 
the  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Appeals.  The  candidates  for  these 
offices  will  naturally  be  men  known  throughout  the  state,  and 
the  voters  at  the  primary  will  probably  be  affected  more  by 
their  knowledge  of  the  men  and  their  records  than  by  local 
considerations. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  seems  that  it  will  be  quite  impossible 
for  the  voters  to  make  up  a  list  of  fifteen  delegates-at-large 
to  the  constitutional  convention  properly  distributed  through 
the  state  without  some  previous  understanding  among  them- 
selves regarding  their  action.  The  voters  themselves  would 
not  know  who  were  suitable  and  available  candidates  in 
other  localities.  The  voter  in  Saint  Lawrence  or  Cattarau- 
gus  would  know  very  little  as  to  who  ought  to  go  to  the  con- 
vention from  New  York  or  Brooklyn,  and  the  voter  in  New 
York  or  Brooklyn  would  have  no  better  knowledge  as  to  who 
ought  to  go  from  Saint  Lawrence  or  Cattaraugus.  Men 
suitable  to  be  delegates-at-large  to  the  convention  cannot  be 
expected  to  make  a  campaign  in  order  to  bring  themselves  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  voters. of  the  entire  state.  Men  may 


306  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

do  that  for  the  governorship  or  for  the  senatorship,  but  not 
for  the  position  of  delegate  to  the  constitutional  convention. 
The  time  and  effort  and  expense  would  be  prohibitory. 
There  seems  to  be  no  way  of  reaching  a  wise  result  in  regard 
to  these  offices  except  for  the  representatives  of  the  Repub- 
lican voters  who  are  convened  here  to  ascertain  who  are  avail- 
able and  suitable  for  delegates-at-large  to  the  convention 
from  all  parts  of  the  state,  and  then  advise  the  Republican 
voters  of  the  result  in  the  form  of  a  recommendation,  leav- 
ing the  voters  to  accept  as  much  or  as  little  of  the  recom- 
mendation as  they  choose. 

As  to  the  other  state  offices,  the  wise  course  to  follow  is 
more  doubtful.  It  may  well  be,  however,  that  by  simple 
comparison  of  views,  facilitated  by  this  gathering  and  with- 
out any  recommendation  from  the  convention,  such  unity 
of  action  can  be  obtained  that  the  designation  by  petition  of 
candidates  for  those  offices  to  be  passed  upon  at  the  primary 
may  be  so  distributed  that  no  unbalanced  or  injurious  result 
will  follow. 

There  is,  however,  a  broader  question  presented  to  all 
Republican  voters  by  the  new  primary  law  —  a  question 
upon  which  the  convention  itself  can  take  no  action,  but 
which  the  members  of  the  convention  ought  to  consider  and 
discuss  here  among  themselves  and  with  their  constituents 
upon  their  return  to  their  homes.  That  question  is:  What 
is  to  be  the  effect  of  the  primary  law  upon  the  cohesion  and 
unity  of  the  party,  its  capacity  for  united  effort,  its  posses- 
sion of  a  common  spirit,  the  willingness  of  its  members  to 
subordinate  minor  differences  in  order  to  secure  the  triumph 
of  the  principles  upon  which  there  is  party  agreement  ?  Are 
the  bonds  of  habit,  of  tradition,  of  sentiment,  of  sympathy, 
of  opinion,  and  of  faith,  which  have  held  together  this  great 
organization,  wiser  and  more  competent  than  any  of  its 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  IN  OPPOSITION     307 

members,  and  have  made  it  a  potent  agency  for  orderly 
self-government,  to  be  dissolved  ? 

We  are  to  have  a  campaign  of  personal  controversy,  of 
personal  attack  and  defense  in  which  great  bodies  of  voters 
within  the  party  will  be  arrayed  in  hostile  attitudes  toward 
each  other.  Whoever  is  nominated  will  find  a  great  faction 
of  the  Republican  voters  themselves  disposed  to  be  un- 
friendly to  him,  possessed  of  unfriendly  opinions  regarding 
him,  smarting  under  defeat.  Will  they  turn  around  and  give 
him  active  support  ?  Will  they  come  out  and  vote  for  him  ? 
If  they  do  not,  then  success  at  the  primary  is  but  a  prelude 
to  defeat  at  the  polls,  and  the  primary  contest  is  but  a  means 
for  the  destruction  of  the  party. 

The  first  duty  of  Republicans  is  to  see  to  it  that  no  such 
result  shall  happen;  and  to  accomplish  this  two  things  are 
necessary.  The  first  is,  that  every  Republican  who  votes  at 
the  primary  election  shall  do  so  under  a  sense  of  honorable 
obligation  to  accept  and  stand  by  the  result  whatever  it  is. 
No  man  has  any  right  to  vote  at  a  primary  unless  he  is  willing 
to  do  that.  No  man  can  honestly  vote  at  a  primary  intending 
to  accept  the  result  if  he  succeeds  and  to  repudiate  it  if  he 
fails.  Somebody  must  fail,  but  the  good  old  American  way 
in  which  our  free  popular  government  has  been  maintained 
is  that  the  defeated  do  not  sulk  or  desert  or  take  to  the  woods; 
but  stand  by  the  result,  conscious  that  other  days  are  to 
come,  and  in  the  cheerful  hope  that  the  defeated  of  today 
may  be  the  victors  of  tomorrow.  The  other  necessary  thing 
is,  that  this  primary  contest  shall  be  conducted  not  as  be- 
tween enemies  but  as  between  friends,  members  of  the  same 
party  and  anxious  for  a  common  success;  with  good  temper 
and  courtesy,  and  not  with  malevolence  and  denunciation; 
that  no  ammunition  be  manufactured  for  the  enemy;  that 
no  wounds  be  inflicted  that  cannot  be  healed,  no  wrongs  done 


308  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

that  cannot  be  forgiven,  no  breaches  opened  that  cannot  be 
closed,  when  the  success  of  the  party  requires  that  its 
members  act  together. 

These  things  can  be  accomplished  only  by  the  aroused, 
intelligent,  earnest,  loyal  public  opinion  of  the  party,  and, 
unless  an  appeal  can  be  made  with  success  to  that  opinion, 
the  primary  law  will  be  a  failure  as  a  means  of  expressing  the 
party's  will  or  the  party  will  have  proved  itself  unfit  to 
govern  because  incapable  of  self-control. 

For  the  first  time  in  eighteen  years  the  Republican  party 
of  the  state  comes  to  the  election  of  its  state  government 
and  its  national  representatives  as  the  party  of  opposition 
both  in  the  state  and  in  the  nation.  We  are  about  to  appeal 
to  the  voters  of  the  state  for  a  judgment  upon  the  conduct 
of  government  by  the  Democratic  party  at  Albany  and  in 
Washington.  I  shall  not  undertake  to  argue  the  case  which 
we  can  make,  but  briefly  to  indicate  what  seem  to  me  some 
of  the  most  important  considerations  which  form  a  part  of 
that  case. 

The  Democratic  party  took  possession  of  the  national 
government  a  year  and  a  half  ago  with  a  program  of  policy 
by  which  they  proposed  to  set  free  every  American  from  the 
incubus  of  too  great  success  by  others,  to  reduce  the  cost  of 
living,  and  to  give  new  life  and  prosperity  to  American  pro- 
duction and  commerce,  and  more  ample  and  certain  returns 
to  American  industry.  Their  program  has  been  followed 
along  three  main  lines  relating  to  the  tariff,  the  financial 
system,  and  the  control  of  trusts  and  corporations.  The 
tariff  was  to  be  for  revenue  only,  and  by  removing  protection 
it  was  to  set  free  American  industry  and  reduce  the  cost  of 
living.  You  know  and  your  constituents  know  better  than 
I  can  tell  you  whether  these  results  have  been  accomplished. 
Have  the  rewards  of  American  industry  been  increased  ? 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  IN  OPPOSITION     309 

We  all  know  that  they  have  not;  but  that  on  the  contrary 
production  has  been  decreased.  Many  mills  and  factories 
have  closed  or  are  running  but  a  part  of  the  time.  Great 
numbers  of  American  employees  have  been  thrown  out  of 
work.  The  domestic  market  which  formerly  furnished  them 
employment  has  been  to  some  considerable  degree  turned 
over  to  foreign  production.  The  imports  of  foreign  products 
for  the  fiscal  year  1914  exceeded  those  for  the  preceding  year, 
ending  June  30,  1913,  to  the  extent  of  $80,917,423;  that  is 
to  say,  nearly  $81,000,000  which  would  have  gone  to  keep 
American  production  active  and  American  workmen  em- 
ployed has  been  paid  to  foreign  producers.  New  markets 
have  not  been  opened  abroad  to  counter-balance  this  trans- 
fer of  our  purchases,  for  our  exports  in  the  fiscal  year  1914 
were  less  than  our  exports  hi  the  preceding  year,  1913,  by 
$101,305,001.  So  that  American  production  during  this 
past  year  has  been  diminished  in  its  foreign  market  and 
superseded  in  its  domestic  market  to  the  extent  of  over 
$182,000,000.  In  the  meantime  the  domestic  market  for 
our  production  has  been  still  further  diminished  because  the 
multitude  of  workmen  who  are  not  employed  have  lost  the 
greater  part  of  their  purchasing  power  and  the  producers 
and  the  merchants  who  are  making  little  or  no  profit  are 
obliged  to  curtail  their  expenses. 

And  yet  the  cost  of  living  has  not  been  reduced.  We 
all  know  that  it  has  not.  And  it  seems  that  if  it  ever  is  to 
be  reduced  by  the  working  of  Democratic  policies  it  will  be 
through  the  distressing  and  painful  cause  that  the  American 
people  have  become  wholly  unable  to  pay  the  cost.  Nor  has 
this  tariff,  for  revenue  only,  been  successful  as  a  producer  of 
revenue.  The  customs  revenues  of  the  United  States  for  the 
fiscal  year  1914,  with  its  $81,000,000  of  increased  importa- 
tions, fell  short  of  the  customs  revenues  for  the  preceding 
year  by  $26,132,740.77. 


310  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

The  American  people  have  many  times  sustained  the  policy 
of  protection  for  American  industry  by  overwhelming  majori- 
ties; but  in  the  few  years  which  preceded  the  elections  of 
1910  and  1912  the  people  had  become  impatient  with  what 
they  believed  to  be  unjust  and  excessive  protection  for  par- 
ticular interests.  Persistent  charges  that  the  high  cost  of 
living  was  due  to  the  tariff,  and  the  spectacle  of  great  wealth 
amassed  in  large  enterprises  had  created  an  impression  of 
protection  profitable  almost  exclusively  to  the  owners  and 
very  little  to  the  workmen  in  our  manufactories  and  mines. 
The  special  and  expert  advocates  of  the  tariff  allowed  the 
system  to  be  tried  upon  its  abuses  rather  than  upon  its  merits. 
But  when  the  Democratic  party  came  into  power  it  did  not 
attempt  to  reform  abuses  of  the  protective  tariff.  It  repu- 
diated the  protective  theory  altogether  and  undertook  to 
make  a  tariff  which  should  not  protect.  Under  the  last 
administration  the  Republicans  in  Congress  had  made  an 
earnest  effort  to  prevent  further  tariff  abuses  by  reforming 
the  method  of  making  the  tariff.  They  put  into  the  tariff 
bill  of  1909  a  provision  under  which  an  expert,  non-partisan 
tariff  commission  was  appointed  by  President  Taft  and 
entered  upon  a  careful,  thorough,  scientific  investigation  of 
the  facts  upon  which  could  be  determined,  in  regard  to  every 
branch  of  production,  what  would  be  a  fair  and  reasonable 
protection  based  upon  the  amount  of  labor  entering  into  the 
production  of  each  article  and  upon  the  comparative  con- 
ditions at  home  and  abroad.  The  Congress  also  passed  a 
further  measure,  by  separate  bill,  providing  for  a  tariff  com- 
mission of  broader  and  more  specific  powers  to  report  to 
Congress  the  results  of  its  investigation;  but  this  bill  was 
delayed  by  a  Democratic  filibuster  in  the  Senate  and  then 
by  a  Democratic  filibuster  in  the  House  until  the  close  of  the 
Sixty-first  Congress,  and  the  advent  of  a  Democratic  House, 
March  4, 1911,  prevented  it  from  becoming  a  law.  Then  the 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  IN  OPPOSITION     311 

new  Democratic  House  starved  the  existing  tariff  commission 
out  of  existence  by  refusing  appropriations  to  enable  it  to  go 
on  with  its  work.  The  Democrats  who  made  the  present 
tariff  bill  scorned  the  assistance  of  a  tariff  commission.  They 
did  not  care  to  know  what  would  be  reasonable  and  fair 
protection  because  they  intended  to  give  no  protection. 
They  believed,  sincerely,  I  do  not  doubt,  that  the  manu- 
facturers, and  miners,  and  farmers  who  had  been  maintain- 
ing the  protective  system  by  their  votes  for  so  many  years 
had  been  receiving  undue  and  unfair  advantages  by  the  pro- 
visions of  the  tariff  law,  and  they  could  not  restrain  a  certain 
feeling  of  hostility  to  the  men  they  had  been  opposing  for  so 
long  and  to  the  industries  in  which  those  men  were  engaged. 
The  present  tariff  was  made  under  the  influence  of  that  feel- 
ing. Perhaps  the  time  has  now  come  when  the  American 
people  are  ready  again  to  try  the  protective  system  upon  its 
merits,  and  to  call  for  legislation  inspired  by  a  spirit  of 
friendship  for  American  industry. 

Although  eight  months  have  passed  since  the  Banking 
and  Currency  Act  became  a  law,  it  has  not  yet  been  put  into 
operation,  while  the  proposed  legislation  against  trusts  and 
corporations  has  not  yet  been  completed.  Those  measures, 
however,  have  not  been  without  their  effect  upon  the  welfare 
of  the  country.  The  various  forms  in  which  they  have  been 
cast,  the  discussions  upon  them,  the  avowed  objects,  the 
unavowed  but  ill  concealed  objects,  the  spirit  of  the  dominant 
party  in  dealing  with  them,  all  have  combined  to  impress  the 
enterprise  of  the  country  with  a  sense  that  the  government  is 
hostile.  Assurances  to  the  contrary  do  not  avail  against  the 
general  weight  of  evidence  derived  from  conduct.  Where  are 
the  new  undertakings,  the  new  investment  of  capital,  the  new 
employment  of  labor,  the  extensions,  the  enlargements,  the 
new  departures  of  active  enterprise,  which  should  mark  the 
passing  years  of  a  vigorous  and  progressive  people  in  the  mid- 


312  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

course  of  developing  a  vast,  rich  country  ?  Enterprise  hesi- 
tates; it  waits,  irresolute  and  fearful,  because,  under  the 
dominance  of  a  party  which  has  shown  such  jealousy  and 
envy  of  business  success,  they  are  afraid  of  what  government 
may  do  to  them  and  to  their  prospective  customers  and  to 
their  hoped-for  opportunities.  In  this  great  country,  in 
which  practically  all  production  must  seek  far  distant  mar- 
kets and  practically  all  demand  must  seek  far  distant  sources 
of  supply,  the  working  of  the  vast  and  complicated  system  of 
industrial  exchanges  requires  great  investments  and  great 
organizations.  The  business  cannot  be  done  otherwise. 
Those  organizations  and  those  investments  halt  in  doubt. 
No  one  knows  whether  the  railroads  and  steamship  lines  of 
the  country  are  to  be  permitted  to  earn  their  interest  and 
dividends.  No  one  knows  whether  great  industrial  or  com- 
mercial organizations,  however  scrupulously  they  obey  the 
law,  are  to  be  permitted  to  continue.  No  one  knows  when 
the  malice  and  misrepresentation  of  a  disappointed  com- 
petitor or  the  loose  declamation  of  a  demagogue  may  bring 
the  vast  new  inquisitorial  powers  of  government  down  to 
destroy  credit  and  ruin  an  undertaking.  Enterprise  halts 
because  it  distrusts  and  fears  the  Democratic  party.  In  the 
meantime,  while  private  enterprise  is  repressed,  government 
control  grows.  It  has  been  discovered  that  by  graduating 
the  income  tax  and  fixing  a  high  exemption,  practically  the 
entire  tax  may  be  drawn  from  the  great  industrial  communi- 
ties of  New  England,  the  Middle  States,  and  the  Central 
West,  while  the  disposition  of  the  money  raised  by  taxation 
may  be  determined  by  the  representatives  of  other  parts  of 
the  country  which  have  paid  none  of  the  tax;  so  that  one  set 
of  Americans  is  to  pay  the  money  and  another  set  of  Ameri- 
cans is  to  spend  it.  Accordingly,  there  has  been  in  Congress 
an  entire  absence  of  that  sense  of  responsibility  for  the  ex- 
penditure of  government  money  which  comes  from  account- 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  IN  OPPOSITION     313 

ability  to  constituents  who  pay  the  money.  New  schemes 
have  been  devised  to  distribute  in  the  places  where  it  will 
do  the  most  good  the  money  taken  from  rich  states  by 
taxation;  $35,000,000  has  been  voted  to  build  railroads  in 
Alaska;  $25,000,000  has  been  voted  by  the  House  to  be 
expended  upon  good  roads  all  over  the  United  States,  and 
that  is  the  prelude  to  good  road  schemes  running  up  into  the 
billions.  In  a  multitude  of  ways  the  desire  is  apparent  that 
to  prevent  the  investment  of  capital  from  being  profitable,  to 
prevent  money  being  made  in  private  enterprise,  the  gov- 
ernment shall  step  in,  secure  the  capital  by  taxation,  and 
carry  on  the  business  itself.  Vast  and  uncontrolled  powers 
over  the  life  and  activity  of  the  American  people  are  being 
vested  in  government  commissions.  The  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commission  has  control  of  the  railroads.  The  Fed- 
eral Reserve  Board  is  to  have  control  of  banks  and  bankers 
and  of  the  credits  of  the  country.  The  Trade  Commission  is 
to  command  the  disclosure  of  the  private  affairs  of  all  indus- 
try, with  the  tremendous  power  of  blackmail,  destruction  of 
credit,  and  ruin,  which  that  involves.  The  Internal  Revenue 
Bureau  may  carry  inquisitorial  proceedings  into  the  private 
affairs  of  every  individual.  We  are  rapidly  pressing  towards 
the  point  where  if  enterprise  is  to  live  it  must  curry  favor  of 
government,  and  thrift  must  follow  fawning. 

What  wonder  that  the  country  begins  to  look  back  to  the 
conditions  which  the  Democratic  party  has  been  destroying. 
The  years  between  the  census  of  1900  and  the  census  of  1910 
were  the  last  decade  of  Republican  control.  During  that 
period  the  manufacturing  capital  of  the  country  increased 
from  $8,975,000,000  to  $18,428,000,000;  the  value  of  manu- 
factured products  from  $13,004,000,000  to  $20,672,000,000; 
the  value  of  the  materials  used  in  manufacture  from  $6,575,- 
000,000  to  $12,141,000,000;  the  number  of  employees  en- 
gaged in  manufacture  from  5,076,000  to  7,405,000;  the 


314  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

wages  and  salaries  paid  to  the  employees  of  manufacture 
from  $2,730,000,000  to  $4,365,000,000;  the  exports  of  the 
country  from  $1,394,000,000  to  $1,744,000,000;  the  number 
of  savings  bank  depositors  from  6,107,000  to  9,142,000;  the 
amount  of  their  deposits  from  $2,389,000,000  to  $4,070,000,- 
000;  the  value  of  farm  property  from  $20,439,000,000  to 
$40,991,000,000.  Which  party  has  done  the  better  by  the 
country  ? 

I  shall  leave  to  others  the  painful  task  of  pointing  out  the 
corruption,  the  profligacy,  and  the  incompetence,  which  have 
characterized  the  government  of  our  state  under  Democratic 
control.  The  people  of  the  state  are  not  ignorant  of  the  way 
in  which  the  Democratic  party  has  served  them.  They  will 
long  carry  the  burden  of  debt  which  has  been  put  upon  them 
without  benefit.  And  they  feel  the  humiliation  of  the 
scandals  in  Albany  and  New  York.  But  where  have  fraud 
and  corruption  and  theft  been  hunted  down  and  brought  to 
justice  and  punished,  except  where  there  chanced  to  be  a 
Republican  prosecuting  officer  ?  Why  is  it  that  under  a  long 
series  of  Republican  state  administrations  we  had  honest 
government  and  under  Democratic  administrations  we  have 
had  waste  and  graft  and  a  plundered  treasury  ?  It  is  not 
because  there  are  not  good  and  honest  men  in  the  Democratic 
party.  It  is  not  because  there  are  not  bad  men  in  the  Repub- 
lican party.  It  is  because  in  the  Democratic  party  of  the 
state  of  New  York,  taken  as  a  whole,  the  base  and  malign 
influences  control  and  get  the  better  of  the  honest  men,  while 
in  the  Republican  party,  as  a  whole,  the  honest  and  patriotic 
influences  control  and  sustain  the  honest  men.  Because 
the  Republican  party,  as  a  whole,  is  fit  to  govern  and  the 
Democratic  party,  as  a  whole,  is  not. 

Which  party  do  the  people  of  the  state  of  New  York  wish 
to  put  in  power  on  the  first  of  the  coming  year  ? 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  IN  OPPOSITION     315 

In  this  controversy  with  the  Democratic  party  the  Repub- 
lican party  stands  alone.  The  threat  of  a  third  party  which 
alarmed  so  many  Republicans  two  years  ago  and  still  vexed 
us  one  year  ago  has  practically  disappeared.  It  is  now 
plain  that  it  never  had  any  real  substance  apart  from  the 
powerful  personality  of  Mr.  Roosevelt.  This  is  unmistak- 
ably indicated  by  the  statistics  of  recent  enrollments  and 
votes.  In  Pennsylvania,  where  447,426  votes  were  cast  for 
Progressive  electors  in  1912,  the  recent  total  vote  in  the 
Progressive  primary  was  but  46,782,  while  the  Republicans 
polled  in  their  primaries  96,000  more  votes  than  both  the 
Progressives  and  Democrats.  In  California,  where  there 
were  but  scattering  Republican  votes  at  the  last  presidential 
election,  the  Republican  enrollment  exceeds  that  of  either 
Democrats  or  Progressives  by  more  than  160,000,  and  comes 
within  1,800  of  equalling  both  together.  In  South  Dakota, 
which  gave  a  10,000  Progressive  majority,  a  conservative 
Republican  has  been  nominated  for  United  States  Senator  by 
a  majority  of  9,000.  In  the  Maryland  senatorial  election  the 
Republican  vote  increased  18,000  and  the  Progressive  vote 
decreased  50,000.  In  the  New  Jersey  state  election  the  Re- 
publican vote  increased  51,000  and  the  Progressive  vote 
decreased  104,000.  In  recent  by-elections  of  Congressmen 
we  find  in  an  Iowa  district  a  Republican  gain  of  2,000  and  a 
Progressive  loss  of  11,000.  In  Maine  a  Republican  gain  of 
8,000  and  a  Progressive  loss  of  6,700.  In  Massachusetts  a 
Republican  loss  of  1,900,  Democratic  loss  of  6,000,  Progres- 
sive loss  of  5,500.  In  West  Virginia  a  Republican  loss  of 
1,700,  Democratic  loss  of  9,000,  Progressive  loss  of  9,500. 
In  Allegheny  county,  Pennsylvania,  where  the  Republican 
electors  in  1912  received  but  24,000  votes,  the  Republican  en- 
rollment is  now  127,000.  In  this  state  the  Republican  enroll- 
ment exceeds  the  vote  for  Republican  electors  in  1912  by 
67,000,  and  the  Progressive  enrollment  is  278,000  less  than 


316  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

the  votes  cast  for  Progressive  electors  in  that  year.  And  it  is 
reported  in  the  public  press  that  the  Progressive  primaries  are 
to  nominate  not  members  of  the  Progressive  party  but  a 
selection  of  Republicans  and  Democrats  for  the  principal 
offices  to  be  filled. 

Plainly,  if  the  people  of  the  state  wish  to  put  an  end  to 
Democratic  control  they  must  do  it  by  voting  for  the 
Republican  candidates. 

The  duty  of  the  Republican  party  of  the  state  will  not  be 
limited  to  administration.  The  great  changes  of  our  time  in 
industrial  and  social  conditions,  the  increase  of  population 
and  wealth,  the  growth  of  cities,  the  magnitude  of  business 
enterprise,  the  interdependence  of  individual  life,  have  cast 
new  burdens  upon  government  and  have  made  it  vastly  more 
complicated  and  difficult.  The  essential  principles  have  not 
changed  but  the  machinery  has  become  overtaxed.  Abuses 
have  arisen,  and  mere  faithful  administration  appears  unable 
to  remove  them,  for  the  organization  of  government  has  be- 
come inadequate.  These  conditions  must  be  dealt  with  by 
affirmative,  constructive  treatment,  and  that  treatment  it  is 
the  duty  and  it  is  the  purpose  of  the  Republican  party  to  give. 

The  most  patent  difficulty  has  been  in  the  working  of  our 
representative  system.  It  is  not  peculiar  to  New  York.  The 
legislatures  of  our  states  generally  have  been  unable  to  deal 
adequately  with  the  problems  presented  to  them.  Our 
American  state  legislatures  were  organized  to  deal  with 
comparatively  simple  government.  Their  members  were 
representatives  of  small,  local  constituencies  with  whose 
affairs  they  had  intimate  personal  knowledge.  The  questions 
which  came  before  them  were  originally  free  from  complica- 
tion and  within  the  range  of  their  experience. 

All  that  has  changed.  The  questions  with  which  our  legis- 
latures now  have  to  deal  involve  enormous  values,  compli- 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  IN  OPPOSITION     317 

cated  relations,  and  social  problems  with  which  the  best 
thought  of  the  world  is  struggling.  To  attain  wise  action 
upon  such  questions  intelligent  leadership  is  necessary. 
That  is  the  invariable  rule  of  human  action.  Results  which 
require  the  conjoint  action  of  considerable  numbers  of  men 
never  yet  have  been  successfully  attained,  and  apparently 
never  will  be  except  through  the  development  of  some  leader- 
ship of  thought  and  feeling.  That  is  true  in  peace  as  it  is  in 
war.  It  is  true  in  politics,  in  labor,  in  sport,  in  business,  upon 
every  occasion  which  requires  many  men  to  act  together. 
There  need  not  be  control  but  there  must  be  leadership.  In 
recent  years  the  real  leaders  of  opinion  —  the  natural  leaders, 
the  men  competent  to  lead  in  politics,  hi  business,  and  in 
thought  —  have  not  as  a  rule  been  members  of  state  legis- 
latures. There  are  exceptions,  but  it  is  true  of  the  system 
generally  that  our  state  legislatures  have  not  contained 
within  themselves  the  elements  of  leadership  necessary  to 
deal  with  the  great  problems  of  our  time.  From  this  lack 
of  capacity  for  internal  leadership  there  came,  in  the  course  of 
our  political  development,  a  system  of  external  leadership 
of  state  legislatures.  Party  leaders  from  outside  the  legisla- 
ture directed  legislative  operation,  and  ultimately  the  one 
chief  party  leader  exercised  sole  control  over  his  party  votes 
in  the  legislature.  Not  selected  by  the  people,  not  responsible 
to  them,  not  subject  to  the  obligations  of  official  station,  free 
from  all  the  limitations  which  laws  have  thrown  about  the 
exercise  of  official  power,  proceeding  in  private,  and  account- 
able to  no  one  for  the  motives  or  the  influences  operating 
upon  him,  this  extra-constitutional  authority  came  to  control 
the  constitutional  government  of  the  states. 

A  popular  revolt  against  the  system  thus  created  found  its 
expression  in  many  parts  of  the  country  in  state  constitu- 
tions, crowded  with  limitations  upon  the  power  of  the  legisla- 
ture, and  in  the  expedient  of  direct  legislation  by  the  people 


318  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

through  the  initiative  and  compulsory  referendum.  Those 
expedients  have  been  the  outcome  of  proper  and  laudable 
determination  to  escape  from  the  control  of  legislatures 
dominated  in  the  way  I  have  described.  They  are  not, 
however,  the  true  avenues  of  escape.  They  are  not  progress. 
They  are  retrogression.  They  are  not  reform.  They  are  aban- 
donment of  representative  government.  They  are  based  upon 
a  surrender  of  state  legislatures  to  perdition.  They  concede 
incapacity  of  a  free,  self-governing  people  to  constitute  and 
maintain  an  honest  and  competent  legislative  body.  The 
true  remedy  is,  not  to  abandon  representative  government, 
but  to  reform  our  representative  system  and  make  it  ade- 
quate to  the  demands  of  our  time.  To  accomplish  this  the 
people  themselves  must  give  adequate  leadership  to  their 
legislative  bodies  and  conform  the  power  and  procedure  of 
those  bodies  to  the  existence  of  such  leadership.  Instead 
of  having  an  unofficial  political  boss  leading  our  legislature 
in  secret,  let  the  leader  of  the  legislature  be  elected  by  all 
the  people  of  the  state,  put  by  law  into  such  relations  with  the 
legislative  body  that  his  leadership  will  be  exercised  in  public 
and  lawful  procedure,  and  let  the  governor  of  the  state  be 
that  leader.  To  have  effective  government  .somebody  should 
be  responsible  for  a  governmental  policy.  Let  the  governor  be 
responsible,  subject  to  the  approval  or  disapproval  of  the 
legislature.  Let  the  governor  or  the  heads  of  his  executive 
departments  have  seats  in  the  senate  and  assembly,  with 
the  right  to  explain  their  policies  and  the  duty  to  answer 
questions  pertinent  to  legislation.  In  place  of  the  inconsider- 
ate, reckless,  unregulated,  and  log-rolling  method  of  piling  up 
appropriations  without  regard  to  resources,  let  us  have  a 
definite  budget  prepared  and  submitted  to  the  legislature 
upon  the  responsibility  of  the  executive,  with  legislative 
power  to  refuse  but  not  to  increase  or  add  appropriations. 
Then  log-rolling  will  cease  and  economy  will  become  practi- 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  IN  OPPOSITION     319 

cable.  Then  there  will  be  effective  power,  coupled  with 
responsibility  —  but  not  autocratic  powers,  because  the 
initiative  and  leadership  will  be  the  duty  of  an  officer  elected 
by  the  people  of  the  state  to  perform  the  duty;  and  because 
final  legislative  decision  will  remain  with  the  legislature  itself. 
The  reflections  which  arise  in  considering  the  relations 
of  the  executive  and  the  legislature  lead  inevitably  to  another 
field  of  reform  in  state  government.  That  is,  the  adoption  of 
the  short  ballot.  That  is  demanded  both  for  the  efficiency 
of  our  electoral  system  and  for  the  efficiency  of  government 
after  election.  The  tendency  of  the  modern  remedies  for 
government  evils  has  been  to  complicate  greatly  the  business 
of  the  voter.  The  initiative  and  referendum,  and  constitu- 
tional amendments,  and  a  vast  multiplication  of  offices, 
municipal,  state,  and  national,  have  produced  enormous 
ballots  and  a  multitude  of  names  and  questions  demanding 
the  voter's  attention,  quite  beyond  his  ordinary  capacity. 
This  is  now  made  still  worse  by  the  introduction  of  the 
Massachusetts  ballot,  under  which  the  voter  cannot  accom- 
plish his  purpose  by  simply  marking  a  party  column.  Even 
the  men  most  familiar  with  political  affairs  find  it  difficult  to 
act  intelligently  upon  all  the  names  and  questions  presented 
by  our  modern  ballots.  There  is  a  general  and  a  just  feeling 
that  the  work  of  the  voter  ought  to  be  simplified.  It  is  a  gen- 
eral rule  that  the  fewer  and  simpler  the  matters  which  are 
presented  to  the  voter  at  the  ballot  box,  the  more  certainly 
the  voter  acts  for  himself  upon  his  own  intelligent  judgment, 
while  the  more  numerous  and  complicated  are  the  matters 
presented,  the  greater  is  the  control  of  the  political  manager. 
The  most  obvious  step  towards  simplifying  the  ballot  in 
this  state  is  to  have  the  heads  of  executive  departments 
appointed  by  the  governor,  as  they  are  now  by  the  President 
of  the  United  States  under  the  national  system,  instead  of 
having  each  one  separately  elected  as  they  are  now  in  this 


320  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

state.  Still  more  important  would  be  the  effect  of  such  a 
change  upon  the  efficiency  of  government.  The  most  impor- 
tant thing  in  constituting  government  is  to  unite  respon- 
sibility with  power,  so  that  a  certain,  known  person  may  be 
held  definitely  responsible  for  doing  what  ought  to  be  done, 
to  be  rewarded  if  he  does  it  and  punished  if  he  does  not  do 
it,  and  that  the  person  held  responsible  shall  have  the  power 
to  do  the  thing.  Under  our  system  we  have  divided  execu- 
tive power  among  many  separately  elected  heads  of  depart- 
ments, and  we  have  thus  obscured  responsibility,  because, 
in  the  complicated  affairs  of  our  government,  it  is  hard  for 
the  best  informed  to  know  who  is  to  be  blamed  or  who  is  to 
be  praised;  who  ought  to  be  rewarded  or  who  punished.  At 
the  same  time  that  the  governor  is  empowered  to  appoint  the 
heads  of  executive  departments  and  made  responsible  for 
their  conduct,  there  plainly  ought  to  be  a  general  reorganiza- 
tion of  the  executive  branch  of  our  government,  and  the 
wasteful  duplication  of  effort  and  the  multiplication  of  offices 
under  a  multitude  of  expensive  commissions  ought  to  be 
obviated  by  making  the  regular  organization  of  the  exec- 
utive departments  adequate  for  the  performance  of  their 
appropriate  duties. 

As  to  the  third  branch  of  government  —  the  judiciary  — 
the  position  of  the  Republican  party  is  clear  and  firm.  It 
stands  for  the  independence,  the  dignity,  and  the  authority 
of  the  courts.  It  believes,  as  our  fathers  believed,  that  here 
is  the  very  citadel  of  liberty  and  of  justice.  It  believes  that 
there  can  be  no  freedom  unless  against  all  private  wrong  and 
against  all  official  oppression  the  weakest  citizen  can  appeal 
to  impartial  judicial  judgment  for  the  enforcement  of  those 
principles  of  right  conduct  which  have  been  established  in 
the  growth  of  Anglo-Saxon  liberty  and  have  been  embodied 
in  the  constitutions  of  these  self-governing  states.  We  will 
support  the  courts  created  by  the  people  in  the  discharge  of 


THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  IN  OPPOSITION     321 

their  high  duty  to  enforce  the  principles  of  justice  declared  by 
the  people  against  all  officers,  however  powerful,  and  against 
all  temporary  majorities,  however  great,  for  we  recognize 
that  there  are  principles  of  justice  which  do  not  depend  upon 
majorities.  If  the  constitution  or  the  law  is  wrong  we  will 
change  it,  but  so  long  as  it  stands  we  will  enforce  it,  and 
we  are  unalterably  against  every  proposal  to  punish  judges 
by  popular  recall  or  to  overrule  their  decisions  by  popular 
vote. 

In  the  judicial  field,  nevertheless,  we  recognize  the  need 
of  affirmative  reform.  The  administration  of  justice  should 
be  made  more  simple,  more  speedy,  more  direct,  less 
costly.  Complication  and  intricate  technicality  of  judi- 
cial procedure,  which  have  resulted  in  some  part  from  the 
inheritance  of  customs  arising  in  early  days  under  differ- 
ent conditions  and  in  greater  part  by  continual  legislative 
tinkering  with  the  law  of  procedure,  ought  to  be  swept  away, 
the  courts  ought  to  be  permitted  to  do  justice  in  a  simple 
and  natural  way,  unhindered  by  statutory  technicalities. 
There  is  no  sufficient  reason  why  this  cannot  be  done.  There 
is  no  reason  why  every  honest  man  should  not  get  his  rights 
without  being  disheartened  by  delay  or  ruined  by  expense. 
The  reform  of  procedure  may  well  include  making  more 
simple  and  speedy,  less  cumbersome  and  expensive,  the  pro- 
ceedings upon  the  trial  of  impeachments  and  in  the  hearings 
required  for  the  removal  of  judges  by  concurrent  resolution. 
There  is  no  good  reason  why  the  testimony  in  such  cases  should 
not  ordinarily  be  taken  before  a  suitable  committee  in  open 
session  and  reported  to  the  body  which  is  to  render  judgment 
as  if  it  were  the  testimony  in  an  equity  cause,  so  that  only  a 
brief  interf  erence  with  legislative  business  would  be  involved. 

The  Republican  party  is  the  party  of  true  reform.  It  holds 
fast  that  which  is  good  and  seeks  to  build  up.  It  maintains 
the  American  theory  of  government,  and  seeks  to  liberalize 


322  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

its  application  to  meet  the  conditions  of  the  times.  It  will 
not  change  its  principles  upon  the  shifting  demands  of  popu- 
larity. It  conceives  true  progress  to  be  won  by  persisting  in 
the  hard,  slow  course  of  popular  self-development  and  self- 
government,  and  not  by  abandoning  the  performance  of  duty 
and  seeking  the  ends  of  government  through  easy  experi- 
ments without  effort  and  without  sacrifice.  Upon  the  proved 
capacity  and  sincerity  of  its  past  and  upon  the  failure  of 
the  opposing  party,  because  it  has  governed  well  and  the 
Democratic  party  has  governed  ill,  the  Republican  party 
demands  from  the  people  of  the  state  that  the  powers  of 
government  be  placed  again  in  its  hands. 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1916 

ADDRESS  AT  A  PUBLIC  MEETING  HELD  UNDER  THE  DIRECTION  OF 
THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB,  NEW  YORK,  OCTOBER  5,  1916 

rTIHE  people  of  the  United  States  have  some  serious  busi- 
JL  ness  to  be  done  by  their  Government  in  the  next  four 
years  and  the  way  in  which  it  is  done  will  be  of  vital  impor- 
tance to  the  country  and  to  all  of  us  in  the  country.  Foreign 
affairs  and  domestic  affairs  alike  will  be  critical  and  difficult; 
and  safety  and  honor  require  that  these  affairs  shall  be 
handled  upon  sound  principles  of  action,  with  intelligence, 
resolution,  and  skill.  The  great  self-governing  people  are  try- 
ing to  determine  now  whom  they  will  employ  for  this  business. 
Shall  we  engage  Mr.  Wilson,  Mr.  Bryan,  Mr.  McAdoo,  Mr. 
Daniels  and  the  rest  of  the  Democratic  Administration  and 
a  Democratic  Congress  to  manage  our  affairs  for  the  next 
four  years  ? 

In  considering  that  question  common  sense  asks:  What 
are  the  principles  by  which  these  gentlemen  regulate  their 
conduct  in  office;  with  what  firmness  of  character,  good 
sense,  and  efficiency,  have  they  applied  their  principles  to  the 
practical  affairs  of  the  country  ? 

We  are  told  that  Mr.  Wilson  has  kept  the  country  out  of 
war.  So  has  every  President  for  seventy  years  except  Lincoln 
and  McKinley.  Never  since  Columbus  sighted  San  Salvador 
has  there  been  a  time  when  it  has  been  so  easy  for  America 
to  keep  out  of  war  by  doing  nothing  as  it  has  been  during  the 
great  conflict  now  raging.  All  the  great  powers  of  the  world 
except  ourselves  have  had  their  hands  full  with  existing 
enemies.  They  have  been  straining  every  resource  to  the 
utmost  to  avoid  being  conquered  by  the  enemies  already  in 

323 


324  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

arms  against  them.  For  each  one  of  them  supplies  of 
material  and  money  and  moral  support  from  the  United 
States  have  been  earnestly  desired  and  sought  because  these 
would  be  a  help  in  the  war  now  raging.  No  country  has  been 
willing  to  assume  hostile  relations  with  us  because  that 
would  have  the  effect  of  weakening  her  and  strengthening 
her  present  enemies.  More  than  that,  none  of  the  countries  at 
war  has  been  willing  to  incur  our  passive  hostility  and  throw 
to  her  active  enemies  the  benefits  of  our  material  and  moral 
support,  free  from  the  limitations  imposed  by  the  law  of 
neutrality.  Our  danger  is  not  now,  while  the  great  war  is 
raging,  but  later,  when  peace  has  been  made  and  the  great 
armies  are  free  and  governments  look  about  for  ways  to 
repair  their  losses  and  the  great  spaces  and  ill-defended 
wealth  of  the  new  world  loom  large  on  the  horizon  of  their 
desires.  Then  will  come  the  pressure  of  competition  backed 
by  force.  Then  will  come  the  grasping  for  opportunity,  for 
trade  advantage,  for  territorial  foothold,  in  these  new  con- 
tinents where  the  wealth  of  the  world  is  concentrating  while 
the  old  nations  are  fighting.  Then  will  come  the  dangers  of 
aggression,  small  at  first,  upon  plausible  pretext,  but  involv- 
ing our  rights,  and  then  we  must  maintain  our  rights  or 
abandon  them.  Then  must  be  determined  whether  the 
Monroe  Doctrine  has  behind  it  the  sincerity  and  courage  of  a 
great  nation  or  is  to  be  surrendered  as  an  idle  boast.  The 
North  gave  up  Mason  and  Slidell  because  during  our  Civil 
War  we  could  not  afford  to  help  the  South  by  fighting 
England,  and  our  Government  looked  on  passively  while 
the  republic  of  Mexico  was  overturned  and  the  empire  of 
Maximilian  established  in  its  place,  because  we  could  not 
afford  to  help  the  South  by  a  war  with  France.  But  when 
the  war  was  ended  and  the  armies  of  Grant  and  Sherman 
were  free,  Sheridan  was  sent  to  the  border,  and  before  the 
potentiality  of  that  great  army,  Louis  Napoleon  withdrew 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1916  325 

from  Mexico  and  began  that  downward  course  of  diminishing 
prestige  and  respect  which  ended  on  the  battlefield  of  Sedan. 
When  the  old,  warring  world  shall  have  had  its  Appomattox 
and  the  powers  are  set  free  each  to  pursue  its  own  purposes, 
the  time  will  come  when  America  will  need  wisdom  and 
character  and  power  to  maintain  her  peace  and  at  the  same 
time  to  maintain  her  rights. 

Peace  is  not  maintained  by  the  surrender  of  just  rights,  for 
the  presumption  of  impunity  begotten  of  weak  submission 
to  aggression  breeds  further  and  still  further  aggression  until 
at  last  a  humiliated  and  outraged  people  plunges  into  war, 
which  ought  to  have  been  wholly  unnecessary.  Peace  is 
maintained  by  the  assertion  of  just  rights,  calmly,  reason- 
ably, accompanied  by  a  knowledge  of  power  behind  the 
assertion  and  a  conviction  in  the  minds  of  others  that  behind 
the  power  are  courage  and  resolution  certain  to  use  the  power 
if  need  be  in  defense  of  the  right.  The  actual  use  of  physical 
power  may  carry  on  a  war,  may  win  a  war,  but  the  certainty 
that  known  power  will  be  exercised  if  need  be  gives  to  power 
its  full  weight  in  the  preservation  of  rights  without  war. 
That  certainty  which  makes  power  potent  for  the  peaceful 
preservation  of  right  is  a  matter  of  character.  It  depends 
upon  the  world's  judgment  of  the  character  of  a  people  and  its 
government.  That  judgment  upon  us  and  our  Government, 
if  it  is  clear  in  our  favor,  will  be  our  sure  defense  in  the  years 
to  come,  while  if  it  is  unfavorable,  we  shall  surely  suffer. 

What  will  be  the  attitude  in  this  respect  of  the  nations  who 
covet  the  wealth  and  opportunity  of  the  new  world  when  the 
great  war  is  over,  if  we  return  the  Wilson  administration  to 
power  ?  Will  they  have  a  conviction  that  courage  and 
resolution  stand  behind  the  assertion  of  our  rights  ?  Will 
they  believe  in  the  sincerity  of  our  declarations,  in  the 
certainty  that  the  great  powers  of  this  people  will  be  used 
to  maintain  their  rights,  and  that  our  Government  has  the 


326  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

wisdom  and  skill  to  use  those  powers  effectively  ?  There  can 
be  but  one  answer  to  this  question.  The  Wilson  administra- 
tion has  had  the  opportunity  to  exhibit  its  character  to  the 
world  and  it  has  failed  to  carry  conviction  or  to  command 
respect.  In  three  fields  of  major  importance  affecting  inter- 
national affairs  —  the  three  great  subjects  with  which  it  has 
had  to  deal  — it  has  shown  itself  to  be  irresolute  and  incompe- 
tent, and  that  is  the  judgment  of  the  world.  These  three  are 
the  murder  of  our  citizens  on  the  Lusitania,  the  preparation 
of  military  and  naval  force  for  national  defense,  and  the 
ghastly  failure  in  Mexico. 

It  will  be  two  years  this  coming  winter  since  Germany 
gave  formal  notice  of  her  intention  to  sink  merchant  vessels 
on  the  high  seas  without  safeguarding  the  lives  of  innocent 
passengers.  On  the  tenth  of  February,  1915,  Mr.  Wilson's 
administration  replied  that  if  Germany  destroyed  American 
ships  or  killed  American  citizens  in  that  way  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  would  hold  the  German  Govern- 
ment to  a  strict  accountability  for  such  acts,  and  take  any 
steps  that  might  be  necessary  to  safeguard  American  lives 
and  property,  and  to  secure  to  American  citizens  the  full 
enjoyment  of  their  acknowledged  rights  on  the  high  seas. 
The  words  used  meant  action.  They  gave  notice  to  Ger- 
many that  she  would  carry  out  her  threat  at  her  peril.  They 
met  the  German  threat  by  an  American  threat.  They  com- 
mitted the  Government  of  the  United  States  clearly  to  the 
use  of  the  nation's  power  for  the  protection  of  American  citi- 
zens on  the  high  seas.  Yet  Germany  paid  no  attention  what- 
ever to  the  threat.  She  executed  her  purpose.  She  crippled 
and  sank  American  vessels.  She  destroyed  American  lives 
rightfully  travelling  on  the  high  seas. 

Why  did  Germany  pay  no  attention  to  the  bold  declara- 
tions of  the  American  Government  ?  Because  she  was  ready 
to  fight  the  United  States  ?  No.  Not  for  a  moment.  She 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1916  327 

ignored  the  words  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
because  upon  her  estimate  of  the  character  of  the  men  who 
controlled  the  American  Government  she  judged  that  they 
had  not  the  nerve,  the  courage,  the  resolution,  to  make  their 
threat  good.  The  Government  of  Germany  judged  rightly, 
as  the  sequel  showed.  Germany  did  what  she  had  threatened 
to  do,  and  the  American  Government  failed  to  make  good  its 
words.  The  brave  words  of  our  Government  about  strict 
accountability  were  used  on  the  tenth  of  February,  1915. 
On  the  twenty-eighth  of  March  a  German  submarine  tor- 
pedoed the  passenger  steamer  Falaba  and  killed  an  innocent 
American  citizen  travelling  in  the  exercise  of  his  undoubted 
rights.  On  the  twenty-eighth  of  April  a  German  aeroplane 
attacked  and  crippled  the  American  vessel  Gushing.  On  the 
first  of  May  a  German  submarine  torpedoed  and  sank  the 
American  steamer  Gulflight  and  killed  several  Americans 
travelling  of  right  upon  that  American  ship  under  the  Ameri- 
can flag.  In  the  last  days  of  April  public  notice  was  given 
in  the  American  newspapers  by  the  German  Ambassador  that 
the  same  acts  for  the  prevention  of  which  our  Government 
had  fruitlessly  arrayed  the  power  of  the  United  States  with 
threats  of  action  were  to  be  repeated  upon  a  larger  scale  by 
the  destruction  of  the  Lusitania,  then  about  to  sail  from 
America.  Nothing  was  done  about  that.  Nobody  made 
him  understand  that  if  this  renewed  threat  was  carried  out 
his  passports  would  be  handed  to  him.  Nobody  made  the 
German  Government  understand  that  it  could  not  safely 
do  the  thing  which  it  had  been  told  would  be  at  its  peril. 
Nobody  made  the  German  Government  understand  that  it 
could  not  with  impunity  despise  the  power  and  flout  the 
authority  of  the  United  States  in  its  solemnly  declared  pur- 
pose to  protect  the  lives  of  its  citizens  on  the  high  seas.  And 
so  the  Lusitania  was  torpedoed  and  sunk  and  one  hundred 
and  eleven  American  citizens  —  men,  women,  and  children  — 


328  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

whose  lives  the  Government  of  the  United  States  had 
solemnly  declared  it  would  protect,  were  slam,  and  more  than 
eleven  hundred  other  innocent  non-combatant  passengers 
were  sent  to  then*  death  in  violation  of  the  law  of  nations  and 
the  law  of  humanity. 

Still  nothing  was  done.  Immediately  upon  the  shock  of  the 
Lusitania  horror,  while  all  the  world  waited,  expectant,  for 
the  Government  of  this  great  country  to  make  good  its  words, 
we  were  told  and  the  world  was  told  that  America  was  too 
proud  to  fight,  and  nothing  was  done,  and  nothing  has  ever 
been  done.  No  one  has  been  held  to  accountability.  A  year 
and  more  later,  after  more  sinkings  of  passenger  ships  and 
drowning  of  American  passengers,  upon  the  President's 
declaration  to  Congress  that  if  such  things  continued  to  be 
done  he  would  be  obliged  to  break  off  diplomatic  relations, 
Germany  suspended  her  practice  of  aggression.  She  may 
resume  it  tomorrow.  Her  statesmen  are  now  discussing  the 
resumption  of  it.  She  made  no  amends  for  the  past  and  she 
made  no  binding  promise  for  the  future.  No  war  was  needed 
to  protect  our  citizens.  What  we  needed  was  a  government 
with  the  strength  of  character  to  do  one  thing  or  the  other. 
If  our  Government  did  not  mean  to  protect  its  citizens  on  the 
high  seas  it  should  have  told  them  that  they  would  not  be 
protected  and  they  could  have  kept  out  of  danger.  But  our 
Government  told  them  that  they  would  be  protected.  If 
our  Government  meant  what  it  said  when  it  declared  it  would 
protect  its  citizens,  it  should  have  had  the  capacity  to  make 
Germany  understand  that  it  meant  what  it  said,  and  the 
Lusitania  would  never  have  been  sunk.  But  it  had  not  that 
capacity.  It  had  not  the  character  to  make  itself  believed. 
From  the  universal  judgment  of  the  world  upon  that  trans- 
action there  is  no  appeal  and  if  we  return  Mr.  Wilson's 
administration  to  office  we  shall  be  served  in  all  the  difficul- 
ties of  the  future  by  agents  discredited  in  advance  —  by 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1916  329 

agents  whose  every  word  is  received  with  a  suspicion  of 
insincerity  and  weakness. 

When  the  full  meaning  of  the  events  which  involved 
Europe  in  war  became  apparent,  many  Americans  saw  that 
the  same  principles  of  action  which  made  war  in  Europe 
might  well  in  the  future  be  applied  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic, 
and,  if  applied,  would  require  America  to  be  ready  to  protect 
her  independence  and  her  safety  by  force  of  arms.  Many 
Americans  demanded  that  preparation  be  made  against  these 
new  conditions  which  had  arisen  in  the  world.  The  Demo- 
cratic party  would  have  none  of  it.  The  President  would 
have  none  of  it.  In  his  address  to  Congress  on  the  eighth  of 
December,  1914,  he  said:  the  subject  "  is  not  new.  There 
is  no  new  need  to  discuss  it.  We  shall  not  alter  our  attitude 
toward  it  because  some  amongst  us  are  nervous  and  excited." 
He  said:  "  let  there  be  no  misconception.  The  country  has 
been  misinformed.  We  have  not  been  negligent  of  national 
defense."  At  that  time,  after  four  years  of  Democratic  con- 
trol of  the  appropriations  of  Congress,  our  navy  had  sunk  to 
the  fourth  place  among  the  navies  of  the  world.  Practically 
nothing  had  been  done  towards  the  construction  of  the  few 
battleships  authorized  in  1913  and  1914.  Our  submarine 
and  aerial  services  were  practically  non-existent.  Our  army 
was  below  its  authorized  strength  and  was  not  sufficient  for 
the  protection  even  of  the  Mexican  border.  In  the  preceding 
Congress  the  Democratic  House  had  passed  a  bill  for  a  sweep- 
ing reduction  of  the  regular  army.  Fortunately  that  bill  was 
stopped  in  the  Senate.  Mr.  Wilson  illustrated  the  attitude 
and  spoke  the  sentiments  of  the  Democratic  party,  which  for 
generations  had  been  always  opposed  to  the  army  and  to  the 
navy,  not  only  to  their  enlargement  but  to  their  adequate 
maintenance.  Something  more  than  a  year  later  Mr.  Wilson 
made  a  tour  of  the  country  telling  the  people  of  the  United 
States  that  the  world  was  on  fire  and  they  must  hurry  up  and 


330  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES  . 

get  ready  to  fight.  He  told  his  audiences  that  it  was  impera- 
tive to  have  the  regular  army  greatly  increased;  that  it  was 
imperative  to  have  a  volunteer  force  provided  for  and 
trained.  He  told  them  the  National  Guard  would  not  do; 
that  it  was  not  big  enough;  that  it  was  ur»der  state  control. 
He  said  at  Milwaukee: 

There  are  incalculable  elements  of  trouble  ahead  which  we  cannot  con- 
trol or  alter.  I  would  be  derelict  to  the  duty  which  you  have  laid  upon  me 
if  I  did  not  tell  you  that  it  was  absolutely  necessary  to  carry  out  our 
principles  in  this  matter  now  and  at  once. 

He  said  at  Saint  Louis  that  we  must  have  incalculably  the 
greatest  navy  of  the  world.  He  said  at  Chicago: 

A  year  ago  it  did  seem  as  if  America  might  rest  secure  without  any  great 
anxiety  and  take  it  for  granted  that  she  would  not  be  drawn  into  this 
maelstrom.  But  a  year  ago  was  merely  the  beginning  of  the  struggle. 
Another  year  has  been  added,  and  now  no  man  can  competently  say 
whether  the  United  States  will  be  drawn  into  the  struggle  or  not. 

Yet,  a  year  before  that  speech,  five  months  had  already 
elapsed  since  the  battle  of  the  Marne.  The  lines  of  the  great 
conflict  were  set,  and  it  was  already  known  throughout  the 
world  that  the  struggle  would  be  long  and  doubtful  and  ter- 
rible and  well-nigh  universal.  It  might  not  be  strange  if  a 
college  professor,  engrossed  in  the  study  of  books  and  the 
instruction  of  youth,  were  not  to  take  notice  of  facts  so  plain, 
but  it  is  indeed  strange  that  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  with  a  great  State  Department  at  his  hand,  with 
ambassadors  and  ministers  and  consuls  in  every  part  of  the 
earth,  reporting  by  letter  and  by  telegraph  —  in  a  position 
unequalled  for  information  —  in  a  position  for  which  he  was 
selected  from  among  millions  and  invested  with  vast  execu- 
tive power  under  the  special  duty  to  exercise  vigilance  and 
foresight  for  his  country's  protection,  should  be  oblivious  to 
the  facts.  At  last,  after  more  than  a  year,  the  President  had 
learned  that  there  was  need  to  discuss  the  subject  of  military 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1916  331 

and  naval  preparation;  that  the  country  had  not  been  mis- 
informed; that  he  and  his  Administration  and  his  party  were 
negligent  of  national  defense;  and  that  the  confident  and 
satisfied  declarations  of  his  address  to  Congress  on  the  eighth 
of  December,  1914,  were  in  error.  A  few  months  later, 
Secretary  of  War  Garrison,  who  had  shone  as  one  of  the  few 
bright  stars  among  the  nebulous  incompetencies  of  the  Demo- 
cratic Administration,  resigned  from  the  Cabinet,  because 
the  President  had  shifted  his  ground  again  and  given  his  sup- 
port to  the  proposition  which  he  had  publicly  denied,  that 
no  force  beyond  the  regular  army  and  the  National  Guard 
was  necessary  for  defense.  I  have  detailed  all  this  as  the 
basis  for  a  question,  and  I  ask  you,  What  kind  of  respect  for 
the  effective  use  of  our  power  will  our  rivals  among  the 
nations  have,  and  what  kind  of  safety  for  such  a  use  and 
direction  will  we  have,  if  we  return  to  office  an  Administra- 
tion which  nearly  two  years  after  its  inauguration  was  so 
densely  and  confidently  ignorant  of  the  conditions  of  the 
military  and  naval  service  of  our  country,  and  whose  fore- 
sight of  the  world  conditions  required  a  year  and  a  quarter 
to  mature  ? 

Why  is  it  that  our  whole  available  regular  army  and  a 
large  part  of  the  National  Guard,  many  of  them  ordered  away 
from  their  homes  and  their  business  to  their  great  incon- 
venience and  distress  to  meet  an  unexpected  emergency,  are 
now  engaged  in  defending  the  states  of  Texas  and  New 
Mexico  against  Mexican  attacks  ?  How  does  it  happen  that 
on  the  20th  of  June  last,  the  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United 
States,  in  a  letter  to  the  Mexican  Secretary  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  found  it  necessary  to  make  the  statements  which  I 
shall  now  read: 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  has  viewed  with  deep  concern 
and  increasing  disappointment  the  progress  of  the  revolution  in  Mexico. 
Continuous  bloodshed  and  disorders  have  marked  its  progress.  For  three 


332  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

years  the  Mexican  Republic  has  been  torn  with  civil  strife;  the  lives  of 
Americans  and  other  aliens  have  been  sacrificed;  vast  properties  developed 
by  American  capital  and  enterprise  have  been  destroyed  or  rendered  non- 
productive; bandits  have  been  permitted  to  roam  at  will  through  the  terri- 
tory contiguous  to  the  United  States  and  to  seize,  without  punishment  or 
without  effective  attempt  at  punishment,  the  property  of  Americans,  while 
the  lives  of  citizens  of  the  United  States  who  ventured  to  remain  in  Mexi- 
can territory  or  to  return  there  to  protect  their  interests  have  been  taken, 
and  in  some  cases  barbarously  taken,  and  the  murderers  have  neither  been 
apprehended  nor  brought  to  justice.  It  would  be  difficult  to  find  in  the 
annals  of  the  history  of  Mexico  conditions  more  deplorable  than  those 
which  have  existed  there  during  these  recent  years  of  civil  war. 

It  would  be  tedious  to  recount  instance  after  instance,  outrage  after 
outrage,  atrocity  after  atrocity,  to  illustrate  the  true  nature  and  extent  of 
the  widespread  conditions  of  lawlessness  and  violence  which  have  pre- 
vailed. During  the  past  nine  months  in  particular,  the  frontier  of  the 
United  States  along  the  lower  Rio  Grande  has  been  thrown  into  a  state  of 
constant  apprehension  and  turmoil  because  of  frequent  and  sudden  incur- 
sions into  American  territory  and  depredations  and  murders  on  American 
soil  by  Mexican  bandits,  who  have  taken  the  lives  and  destroyed  the  prop- 
erty of  American  citizens,  sometimes  carrying  American  citizens  across 
the  international  boundary  with  the  booty  seized.  American  garrisons 
have  been  attacked  at  night,  American  soldiers  killed  and  then-  equipment 
and  horses  stolen;  American  ranches  have  been  raided,  property  stolen 
and  destroyed,  and  American  trains  wrecked  and  plundered.  ...  So  far 
has  the  indiff erence  of  the  de  facto  Government  to  these  atrocities  gone 
that  some  of  these  leaders,  as  I  am  advised,  have  received  not  only  the 
protection  of  that  Government,  but  encouragement  and  aid  as  well. 

These  conditions  are  the  result  of  three  years  and  a  half  of 
Mr.  Wilson's  Mexican  policy.  They  are  the  result  of  Mr. 
Wilson's  interference  in  the  internal  affairs  of  Mexico.  The 
men  against  whom  our  Secretary  of  State  complained  so 
bitterly  are  the  men  whom  President  Wilson  put  into  con- 
trol in  Mexico  by  using  the  power  of  the  United  States  to 
turn  Huerta  out  and  make  their  revolutionary  movement 
successful. 

When  Mr.  Taft  retired  from  office  in  March,  1913,  the 
Mexican  revolution,  through  which  Madero  was  overturned 
and  Huerta  became  president,  and  the  counter-revolution, 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1916  333 

headed  by  Carranza  and  Villa,  had  been  in  progress  only 
twelve  days.  The  time  was  too  short  to  determine  any 
question  of  recognition  or  even  to  ascertain  facts  with  cer- 
tainty, and  the  whole  subject  was  properly  left  by  Mr.  Taft 
to  his  successor.  The  new  Administration  had  a  clear  field  to 
determine  and  act  upon  a  policy  of  its  own.  The  ordinary 
practice  of  nations  under  such  circumstances  is  to  await  the 
decision  of  the  people  of  the  country  itself  in  favor  of  one 
contending  faction  or  the  other,  and  to  recognize  whichever 
actually  acquires  control  of  the  territory  and  shows  itself 
able  to  perform  the  duties  of  government.  The  general 
public  declarations  of  President  Wilson  were  in  accordance 
with  that  rule  of  action,  for  he  said  to  Congress  on  the 
twenty-seventh  of  August,  1913 : 

We  cannot  in  the  circumstances  be  the  partisans  of  either  party  to  the 
contest  that  now  distracts  Mexico  or  constitute  ourselves  the  virtual 
umpire  between  them. 

And  he  proclaimed  the  policy  of  "watchful  waiting."  In 
reviewing  this  policy  at  Indianapolis,  on  the  ninth  of  Jan- 
uary, 1915,  Mr.  Wilson  said: 

When  some  great  dailies  not  very  far  from  where  I  am  temporarily 
residing  thundered  with  rising  scorn  at  watchful  waiting,  Woodrow  sat 
back  in  his  chair  and  chuckled,  knowing  that  he  laughs  best  who  laughs 
last. 

And  speaking  of  the  question  who  should  be  the  governor  and 
what  the  government  of  Mexico,  he  said: 

It  is  none  of  my  business  and  it  is  none  of  your  business  how  long  they 
take  in  determining  it.  It  is  none  of  my  business,  and  it  is  none  of  yours, 
how  they  go  about  the  business.  The  country  is  theirs.  The  government 
is  theirs.  The  liberty,  if  they  can  get  it,  and  God  speed  them  in  getting 
it,  is  theirs.  And  so  far  as  my  influence  goes  while  I  am  President  nobody 
shall  interfere  with  them. 

If  the  President  had  adhered  to  the  policy  which  he  thus 
publicly  proclaimed,  the  contrast  might  be  less  shocking  now 
between  the  appalling  conditions  exposed  in  the  letter  of  the 


334  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

Secretary  of  State  which  I  have  quoted,  and  the  untimely 
merriment  of  the  Indianapolis  speech.  But  the  President's 
action  did  not  conform  to  these  declarations.  His  action  and 
his  words  were  startlingly  inconsistent.  He  proclaimed 
watchful  waiting  and  he  engaged  in  active  interference  and 
partisanship.  In  that  very  month  of  August,  1913,  when  he 
told  Congress  that  we  could  not  be  the  partisans  of  either 
party  to  the  contest  in  Mexico  or  constitute  ourselves  the 
virtual  umpire  between  them  he  had  already  sent  John  Lind 
to  Mexico  with  instructions,  saying: 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  does  not  feel  at  liberty  any  longer 
to  stand  inactively  by  while  it  becomes  daily  more  and  more  evident  that 
no  real  progress  is  being  made  towards  the  establishment  of  a  government 
at  the  City  of  Mexico  which  the  country  will  obey  and  respect. 

Then  followed  a  demand  to  be  presented  to  General  Huerta 
that  there  should  be  an  immediate  cessation  of  fighting; 
that  security  should  be  given  for  an  early  and  free  election; 
and  that  General  Huerta  should  bind  himself  not  to  be  a 
candidate  for  the  presidency  at  that  election.  In  other 
words,  a  demand  that  Huerta  should  surrender  his  power 
and  get  out.  Of  course  Huerta  refused.  Curiously  enough, 
bad  as  he  may  have  been,  he  and  his  adherents  resented  the 
attempt  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  to  determine  the 
presidential  succession  in  Mexico  and  exclude  him  from 
the  office.  His  government  was  in  possession  of  the  city,  the 
archives,  the  greater  part  of  the  territory  of  the  republic.  It 
had  been  recognized  by  substantially  all  the  great  powers 
and  most  of  the  smaller  powers  of  the  world.  He  was  dis- 
charging the  international  obligations  of  the  Mexican 
government.  The  bankers  of  the  great  financial  cities  of 
the  world  had  loaned  thirty  million  dollars  to  his  government 
as  the  Government  of  Mexico,  and  he  refused  to  abdicate. 
On  the  second  of  the  following  December,  1913,  the  President 
in  a  public  address  to  Congress  declared: 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1916  335 

There  can  be  no  certain  prospect  of  peace  in  America  until  General 
Huerta  has  surrendered  his  usurped  authority  in  Mexico;  until  it  is  under- 
stood on  all  hands,  indeed,  that  such  pretended  governments  will  not  be 
countenanced  or  dealt  with  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States. 

That  declaration  of  course  ruined  the  credit  of  Huerta's 
government  in  the  money  markets  of  the  world.  But  Huerta 
still  maintained  himself,  and  on  the  ninth  of  the  following 
April,  1914,  occurred  an  incident  which  was  made  the  occa- 
sion for  further  action  on  the  part  of  the  American  Adminis- 
tration. On  that  day  the  crew  of  a  boat  from  the  United 
States  steamship  Dolphin,  landing  at  a  pier  in  the  city  of 
Tampico,  the  use  of  which  had  been  prohibited  without  their 
knowledge,  were  arrested  by  the  subordinate  officer  in  charge 
at  the  pier  and  detained  an  hour  and  a  half,  until  a  superior 
officer  was  informed  and  ordered  their  release.  The  officer 
in  command  at  Tampico  apologized  for  what  had  been  done; 
General  Huerta  apologized  for  what  had  been  done;  the 
subordinate  officer  who  had  made  the  arrest  was  himself 
arrested  and  held  for  punishment.  But  a  formal  salute  to  the 
flag  was  demanded  as  further  reparation;  and  that  not  being 
forthcoming,  the  President  ordered  the  navy  to  Vera  Cruz, 
the  great  seaport  of  Mexico  through  which  the  capital  is 
served,  and  captured  and  occupied  the  city.  In  that  capture 
nineteen  American  marines  were  killed  and  seventy  wounded, 
and  the  Mexican  loss  was  reported  to  be  one  hundred  and 
twenty-six  killed  and  one  hundred  and  ninety-five  wounded. 
At  the  same  time  the  President  applied  to  Congress  for  a 
resolution  to  justify  his  course.  The  resolution  adopted  by 
Congress,  which  was  still  under  discussion  when  the  news  of 
the  capture  was  received,  was  in  these  words: 

That  the  President  of  the  United  States  is  justified  in  the  employment 
of  the  armed  forces  of  the  United  States  to  enforce  the  demands  made 
upon  Victoriano  Huerta  for  unequivocal  amends  to  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  for  affronts  and  indignities  committed  against  this  Govern- 
ment by  General  Huerta  and  his  representatives. 


336  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

In  asking  for  this  justification  in  his  address  to  Congress  of 
April  20,  1914,  the  day  of  the  capture,  the  President  said: 

The  people  of  Mexico  are  entitled  to  settle  their  own  domestic  affairs  in 
their  own  way,  and  we  sincerely  desire  to  respect  their  right.  The  present 
situation  need  have  none  of  the  grave  implications  of  interference  if  we 
deal  with  it  promptly,  firmly,  and  wisely. 

Nevertheless,  it  was  widely  believed  and  widely  charged  at 
the  time  that  the  flag  incident  was  but  a  pretext  for  inter- 
ference in  the  civil  war  then  waging  in  Mexico,  and  for  using 
the  power  of  the  United  States  to  enable  Carranza  and  Villa 
to  overthrow  Huerta.  And  many  times  the  comment  has 
been  made  that  as  soon  as  Huerta  had  been  bottled  up  by  the 
seizure  of  his  seaport  and  the  interruption  of  his  supplies, 
the  subject  of  saluting  the  flag  was  never  heard  from  again. 
Proof  has  now  been  furnished  that  the  charges  made  at  the 
time  were  well  founded;  that  the  flag  incident  was  a  mere 
pretext;  that  the  reason  for  action  laid  before  Congress  was 
not  the  real  reason.  That  proof  comes  from  President  Wil- 
son's own  official  family.  It  is  a  statement  by  Franklin  K. 
Lane,  Secretary  of  the  Interior  in  President  Wilson's  Cabinet 
at  the  time  the  events  occurred  and  holding  the  same  position 
in  President  Wilson's  Cabinet  now.  You  can  find  Secretary 
Lane's  statement  in  the  Congressional  Record  for  July  21, 
1916,  at  page  13207.  It  is  as  follows: 

Meanwhile  the  revolution  had  gained  such  headway  in  the  north  that 
it  was  difficult  from  day  to  day  to  say  which  had  or  occupied  the  greatest 
portion  of  Mexican  territory.  Huerta  was  keeping  up  his  resistance 
because  he  was  being  supplied  with  ammunition  from  abroad.  A  ship  was 
reported  ready  to  land  at  Vera  Cruz  with  a  cargo  of  arms,  and  as  a  warning 
to  Huerta  and  in  proof  of  the  seriousness  of  our  purpose  to  bring  Huerta 
to  a  recognition  of  our  attitude,  the  order  was  given  to  seize  the  custom 
house  and  occupy  the  port  of  Vera  Cruz. 

We  did  not  go  to  Vera  Cruz  to  force  Huerta  to  salute  the  flag.  We  did 
go  there  to  show  Mexico  that  we  were  in  earnest  in  our  demand  that 
Huerta  must  go,  and  he  went  before  our  forces  were  withdrawn.  .  .  .  We 
had  gone  to  Vera  Cruz  "  to  serve  mankind."  Our  only  quarrel  was  with 
Huerta,  and  Huerta  got  out  on  July  16,  1914. 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1916  337 

And  so,  proclaiming  impartiality  and  respect  for  the  right 
of  Mexico  to  settle  her  own  affairs,  President  Wilson  inter- 
fered in  the  civil  controversy  in  Mexico,  and  finally  inter- 
vened by  force  of  arms  and  destroyed  one  party  and  aided  the 
other  party  and  overthrew  Huerta  and  set  up  Carranza  and 
Villa  in  the  control  of  government  there.  He  has  had  his  way 
in  Mexico  and  he  has  managed  it  with  such  a  degree  of  skill 
that  both  Villa  and  Carranza  are  our  enemies;  that  no  man 
in  Mexico  dares  call  himself  our  friend,  and  that  the  Secre- 
tary of  State  is  constrained  to  write  the  letter  which  I  have 
quoted.  I  wonder  if  the  President  laughed  when  he  read  that 
letter  and  contemplated  the  results  of  his  extraordinary 
"  watchful  waiting  ",  modified  by  active  interference  ? 

The  question  for  the  American  people  now  is,  Are  they 
willing  to  have  the  serious  and  critical  affairs  in  which  their 
vital  interest  will  be  concerned  during  the  next  four  years 
conducted  in  the  same  way  that  the  Mexican  business  has 
been  conducted  ? 

There  is  one  particular  subject  with  which  the  United 
States  must  deal  in  order  to  meet  the  revulsion  in  production 
and  trade  which  will  accompany  the  close  of  the  great  war. 
That  is  the  tariff.  I  think  there  is  very  general  agreement 
upon  that.  When  the  demand  for  supplies  to  the  armies  in 
the  field  has  ended,  great  numbers  of  men  will  return  to 
productive  employment  in  Europe,  and  great  numbers  of 
operatives  will  be  thrown  out  of  employment  here  and  will 
have  to  find  other  work.  Europe  will  have  little  money  and 
will  be  heavily  in  debt.  She  will  be  under  strong  compulsion 
to  pay  her  debts  by  making  and  selling  goods.  She  will  be  on 
a  basis  of  strict  economy  and  high  organization  and  she  can 
make  and  sell  cheaply.  The  United  States  will  have  an 
abundance  of  money  and  vast  purchasing  power.  Our  mar- 
ket has  always  been  attractive  to  European  producers.  It 
will  be  far  more  attractive  after  the  war.  It  is  highly  prob- 


338  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

able  that  even  England  will  resort  to  a  protective  tariff,  so 
that  our  production  will  meet  protective  barriers  in  all  the 
foreign  markets.  What  are  we  going  to  do  then  ?  We  must 
do  something.  We  must  protect  ourselves  or  we  shall 
become  the  dumping-ground  of  the  world  and  our  workmen 
will  beg  in  the  streets.  Even  the  Democrats  have  seen  that 
something  must  be  done,  for  they  have  provided  a  tariff 
board  to  ascertain  and  report  the  true  facts  to  which  a  tariff 
law  is  to  be  applied.  When  they  made  a  tariff  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Wilson  administration  they  were  very  con- 
temptuous about  tariff  boards.  They  would  have  none  of 
them.  In  Mr.  Taft's  administration  the  Republicans  pro- 
vided for  a  tariff  board  to  report  to  the  President  and  it 
was  appointed  and  doing  excellent  work.  When  the  Demo- 
cratic House,  elected  in  1910,  came  in  they  starved  it  out  of 
existence  by  refusing  appropriations.  In  the  last  session  of 
the  Sixty-first  Congress  the  Republicans  passed  through  both 
Houses  a  new  bill  for  a  tariff  board  to  report  to  Congress. 
There  were  some  slight  differences  of  detail  in  the  two 
Houses,  which  were  agreed  upon  in  conference,  but  the 
Democrats  filibustered  against  the  final  conference  report 
and  so  killed  the  bill.  So  the  tariff  board  was  dead  —  slain 
by  the  Democratic  party.  It  has  now  been  resurrected  by 
that  party  because  they  see  that  something  must  be  done 
about  the  tariff  when  the  war  closes.  Even  my  friend 
Senator  Stone  of  Missouri  has  seen  the  light  about  dye-stuffs. 
Coming  from  Missouri  he  has  been  shown  in  some  way  that 
dye-stuffs  must  be  protected.  He  is  still  faithful  to  the  old 
flag  of  tariff  for  revenue  only,  but  he  votes  for  a  protective 
tariff  on  dye-stuffs  because  he  says  he  sees  no  other  way  to 
protect  them.  Now  we  can  all  understand  that  if  the  coun- 
try wants  a  tariff  for  revenue  only  they  may  put  the  making 
of  it  in  the  hands  of  the  Democratic  party.  But  can  any 
sane  man  contemplate  that  party  making  a  protective  tariff  ? 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1916  339 

In  the  first  place  they  cannot  do  it  honestly.  They  do  not 
believe  in  it.  They  were  born  and  bred  in  a  different  faith. 
Way  back  in  1856  the  Democratic  platform  declared  for 
"  progressive  free  trade  throughout  the  world  ",  and  four 
years  later,  in  1860,  their  platform  contained  this  provision: 

We,  the  Democracy  of  the  Union,  in  convention  assembled,  hereby 
declare  our  affirmance  of  the  resolutions  unanimously  adopted  and 
declared  as  a  platform  of  principles  by  the  Democratic  convention  in 
Cincinnati  in  the  year  1856,  believing  that  Democratic  principles  are 
unchangeable  in  their  nature  when  applied  to  the  same  subject  matters. 

Their  principles  are  indeed  unchangeable  enough  about  the 
tariff  to  make  it  impossible  for  them  to  apply  the  principle  of 
protection  fairly  and  honestly  to  the  making  of  a  tariff. 
That  opposition  has  run  through  all  their  history.  In  1876 
their  platform  says: 

We  demand  that  all  custom  house  taxation  shall  be  only  for  revenue. 

In  1880  they  declared  for  "  a  tariff  for  revenue  only."  In 
1892  their  platform  says: 

We  declare  it  to  be  a  fundamental  principle  of  the  Democratic  party 
that  the  Federal  Government  has  no  constitutional  power  to  impose  and 
collect  tariff  duties,  except  for  the  purpose  of  revenue  only. 

In  1904  they  say: 

We  denounce  protectionism  as  a  robbery  of  the  many  to  enrich  the  few, 
and  we  favor  a  tariff  limited  to  the  needs  of  the  government,  economically, 
effectively,  and  constitutionally  administered. 

In  1912  they  say  again: 

We  declare  it  to  be  a  fundamental  principle  of  the  Democratic  party 
that  the  Federal  Government  under  the  Constitution  has  no  right  or  power 
to  impose  or  collect  tariff  duties  except  for  the  purpose  of  revenue. 

And  in  their  platform  of  this  present  year  they  declare: 

We  reaffirm  our  belief  in  the  doctrine  of  a  tariff  for  the  purpose  of  pro- 
viding sufficient  revenue  for  the  operation  of  the  government  economically 
administered,  and  unreservedly  indorse  the  Underwood  tariff  law  as  truly 
exemplifying  that  doctrine. 


340  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

There  is  the  position  of  the  Democratic  party.  They  have 
been  crying  so  long  that  protection  is  an  abuse  of  power  and 
an  abomination  that  they  cannot  reconcile  themselves  to  a 
protective  tariff,  and  they  regard  the  Underwood  tariff  as 
a  model.  That  is  what  we  are  to  have  if  the  Democrats  go 
back  —  the  Underwood  tariff  still,  with  perhaps  here  and 
there  a  slight  modification  regarding  dye-stuffs  and  some 
other  articles  which  can  be  shown  to  gentlemen  from  Missouri 
and  elsewhere. 

Well,  if  there  ever  was  a  clumsy,  ill-conceived,  misfit  law, 
it  is  the  tariff  which  bears  Mr.  Underwood's  name.  We  had 
already  discovered  what  its  effect  was  when  the  war  in 
Europe  began.  During  the  year  ending  June  30, 1914,  under 
that  tariff  our  imports  of  foreign  products  were  $80,917,423 
greater  and  our  exports  to  foreign  markets  were  $101,305,- 
001  less  than  in  the  preceding  year  under  the  Republican 
tariff.  So  that  American  production  during  that  year  was 
diminished  in  its  foreign  market  and  superseded  in  its 
domestic  market  to  the  extent  of  over  $182,000,000.  At  the 
same  time  the  revenue  from  customs  duties  for  the  year  1914, 
with  its  eighty  odd  million  of  increased  imports,  fell  short  of 
the  customs  revenue  of  the  preceding  year  by  $26,132,740.77. 
Many  mills  and  factories  were  closed  or  running  but  a  part 
of  the  time.  Great  numbers  of  laborers  were  thrown  out  of 
employment  and  the  market  for  American  products  was  still 
further  reduced  by  the  destruction  of  their  purchasing  power. 
Enterprise  halted,  discouraged  and  apprehensive  of  the 
future.  New  enterprises  were  no  longer  attempted.  Old 
plants  were  no  longer  enlarged.  The  Underwood  tariff  had 
already  failed  when  the  war  in  Europe  began.  That  war 
furnished  and  continues  to  furnish  to  American  production 
the  most  absolute  protection,  because  it  has  to  so  great  a 
degree  stopped  production  in  Europe.  So  long  as  the  war 
lasts  our  producers  have  practically  no  competition  in  our 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1916  341 

home  market,  for  Europe  does  not  make  the  goods  to  sell 
here.  At  the  same  time,  while  the  war  lasts  our  producers 
have  an  enormous  market  in  Europe  for  the  things  that 
Europe  cannot  produce  in  sufficient  quantities.  When  the 
war  is  over  that  condition  will  cease,  and  we  shall  deserve 
what  happens  to  us  if  we  do  not  provide  against  that  time  by 
a  tariff  quite  different  from  the  Underwood  tariff,  and  made 
by  men  who  do  not  consider  a  tariff  for  revenue  only  an 
article  of  religious  faith. 

There  is  another  grave  matter  which  should  influence  the 
selection  of  a  new  government.  That  is  the  surrender  of 
the  President  and  Congress  to  the  peremptory  demand  of  the 
four  railroad  brotherhoods  for  the  increase  of  their  wages  by 
a  law  passed  under  threats. 

To  say  that  the  demand  of  the  brotherhoods  or  the  law 
passed  in  response  to  that  demand  involved  the  question  of 
an  eight-hour  day  for  labor  is  a  manifest  subterfuge.  There 
was  no  demand  or  suggestion  that  the  labor  of  the  engineers, 
firemen,  conductors,  and  trainmen  included  in  the  four 
brotherhoods  should  be  limited  to  eight  hours  a  day.  There 
was  nothing  in  the  law  limiting  their  labor  to  eight  hours  a 
day.  There  was  no  penalty  and  no  prohibition  against 
exceeding  that  number  of  hours.  Everybody  knew  that  a 
strict  eight-hour  schedule  of  labor  was  inapplicable  in  fact 
to  service  upon  railroad  trains  where  speed  and  distance  so 
largely  control  length  of  service,  and  nobody  proposed  to 
apply  any  such  schedule  to  that  business.  What  happened 
was  that  the  brotherhoods  demanded,  not  shorter  hours  of 
labor  but  that  in  computing  their  pay  eight  hours  should  be 
assumed  as  a  day's  work  and  they  should  have  the  same  pay 
for  eight  hours  that  they  had  been  getting  for  ten,  with  extra 
pay  for  the  additional  time  above  eight  hours.  The  railroad 
companies  offered,  in  computing  the  pay,  to  assume  eight 
hours  as  the  basis  but  refused  to  allow  the  full  ten  hours'  pay 


342  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

for  eight  hours'  service,  with  extra  pay  for  the  additional  time 
and  they  offered  to  arbitrate  the  question  as  to  what  amount 
of  pay  the  brotherhood  men  ought  to  receive  for  their  service 
on  the  eight-hour  basis.  The  question  thus  became  a  ques- 
tion of  the  amount  of  pay,  pure  and  simple.  The  universal 
opinion  of  our  country  has  been  that  such  questions  ought  to 
be  settled  by  arbitration.  Labor  has  been  in  favor  of  that. 
The  most  intelligent  and  broadminded  employers  have  been 
for  that.  Disinterested  citizenship  has  been  for  that.  Arbi- 
tration of  industrial  disputes  has  been  gradually  developing 
into  a  custom  of  the  country,  just  as  our  system  of  law  has 
developed  through  customs,  answering  the  needs  and 
enforced  by  the  public  opinion  of  the  community.  Where 
the  participants  in  any  industry  are  rendering  a  public  ser- 
vice there  is  a  special  reason  and  a  special  necessity  for  such 
peaceable  settlement  of  industrial  disputes.  In  an  ordinary 
business  a  strike  is  a  contest  between  a  laborer's  need  to  earn 
a  living  and  an  employer's  need  to  continue  a  profitable  busi- 
ness. They  only  are  directly  involved.  But  where  there  is  a 
public  service  the  whole  people  are  involved.  If  the  service 
stops  they  suffer,  and  they  have  a  right  to  insist  that  no 
controversy  between  the  employer  and  the  employed  shall 
stop  a  service  necessary  to  the  continuance  of  the  life  of  the 
community.  The  only  way  yet  discovered  to  prevent  that 
is  the  settlement  of  such  industrial  disputes  by  arbitration. 
The  brotherhoods  refused  arbitration  and  insisted  upon  the 
immediate  granting  of  their  demands,  whereupon  the  Presi- 
dent recommended  the  passage  of  a  law  granting  their 
demands.  A  bill  was  introduced  in  Congress  and  while  it 
was  under  discussion  the  brotherhoods  gave  notice  to  the 
Government  that  unless  the  bill  was  passed  by  Saturday 
night  they  would  stop  the  entire  railroad  transportation  of 
the  country.  Under  the  compulsion  of  that  threat,  the  bill 
was  passed  by  Saturday  night  and  is  on  the  statute  books  of 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1916  343 

the  United  States.  No  inquiry  was  made  and  there  was  no 
pretense  of  forming  an  opinion  in  Congress  as  to  whether  the 
demand  was  justified  and  the  wages  demanded  ought  to  be 
paid.  You  and  I  do  not  know  whether  the  demand  was 
justified.  The  people  of  the  United  States  do  not  know 
whether  it  was  justified.  Congress  did  not  know  whether  it 
was  justified.  The  legislation  was  passed  in  submission  to  a 
threat.  The  brotherhoods,  four  hundred  thousand  in  num- 
ber, had  in  their  hands  the  power  to  injure  the  community  by 
stopping  transportation,  and  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  submitted  to  them.  It  was  a  hold-up,  pure  and  simple. 
Do  not  for  a  moment  think  that  this  was  merely  a  question 
between  railroad  corporations  and  the  men  who  run  their 
trains.  It  passed  far  beyond  that.  The  railroad  companies 
render  an  absolutely  necessary  public  service.  If  it  stops, 
business  stops,  and  ruin  and  starvation  begin.  The  railroad 
brotherhoods  include  only  about  one-fifth  of  the  employees 
of  the  railroad  companies.  How  about  the  other  four-fifths  ? 
Are  they  not  equally  entitled  ?  They  are  not  so  well  paid  as 
the  brotherhood.  The  majority  of  the  brotherhood  are 
already  receiving  greater  compensation  than  the  average  of 
the  clergymen,  the  teachers,  the  lawyers,  the  doctors,  of  the 
country.  Why  should  not  the  other  four-fifths  hold  up  the 
Government  upon  a  demand  for  higher  wages  ?  They  also 
are  able  to  stop  transportation.  For  all  that  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  knows,  the  four-fifths  not  included 
in  this  legislation  ought  to  have  their  wages  increased  and  the 
one-fifth  ought  not  to  have  them  increased.  The  difference  is 
not  one  of  ascertained  rights,  but  that  the  one-fifth  has  exer- 
cised the  power  of  compulsion  and  the  four-fifths  have  not. 

But  if  the  railroad  rates  are  now  justly  fixed  by  the  Inter- 
state Commerce  Commission,  upon  these  enormous  increases 
of  pay  to  their  employees  the  railroads  must  increase  these 
rates,  and  shippers  and  passengers  must  pay  more*  and  the 


344  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

whole  public  must  pay  more;  for  into  the  cost  of  practically 
every  material  thing  that  we  use  in  life  enters  the  cost  of 
transportation.  The  higher  the  cost  of  transportation,  the 
higher  must  be  the  price  we  pay  for  everything  transported. 
So,  in  the  end,  the  public  pays  and  the  question  is,  are  the 
people  of  the  United  States  to  be  held  up  by  a  compact, 
organized  minority  ? 

There  is  a  broader  question  here  than  the  payment  of 
higher  railroad  rates.  There  is  the  question  of  the  com- 
petency of  government  and  the  spirit  of  a  self-governing 
people.  If  the  government  of  this  democracy  is  to  submit  to 
compulsion  by  an  organized  minority,  and  the  people  are  to 
approve  by  their  votes,  other  minorities  will  profit  by  the 
example.  There  are  a  multitude  of  ways  in  which  the  coer- 
cion of  the  community  through  its  necessities  is  practicable, 
if  coercion  be  permitted.  If  the  attitude  of  our  Government 
under  the  compulsion  of  the  railroad  brotherhoods  is  to  be 
the  attitude  of  the  American  people,  we  hold  our  lives  at  the 
mercy  of  the  public  blackmailer.  The  peace  and  order  and 
prosperous  life  of  the  community  are  impossible  under  such 
conditions.  The  organization  of  civil  society  which  regulates 
the  rights  and  duties  of  its  members  towards  each  other  upon 
the  basis  of  ascertained  justice,  will  have  failed,  as  it  has 
failed  in  Mexico.  The  only  way  to  prevent  the  example  of 
the  surrender  of  government  to  the1  compulsion  of  the  railroad 
brotherhoods  from  being  followed  by  others,  is  to  condemn  it 
and  to  condemn  it  now.  The  way  is  to  respond  now  to  that 
evil  example  with  so  clear  a  note  of  the  courage  and  inde- 
pendent character  of  American  citizenship  that  never  again 
will  any  band  or  organization  or  class  of  men  attempt  to 
extort  money  from  the  American  people  by  threats  of  injury, 
rather  than  by  the  established  justice  of  their  cause. 

The  conduct  of  life  by  individuals  and  of  public  affairs  by 
political  parties  is  not  wholly  nor  chiefly  controlled  by  the 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1916  345 

events  and  impulses  of  the  hour.  Overruling  all,  the  spirit 
of  the  man's  life  and  the  party's  life  determines  the  attitude 
and  the  action  with  which  the  exigencies  of  successive  years 
are  met.  The  weakness  of  the  Democratic  party,  and  the 
legislators  and  executives  by  whom  it  is  represented  in  the 
government  of  our  country,  is  that  the  Democratic  party  is 
national  only  in  form  and  profession.  It  does  not  think 
nationally.  It  does  not  feel  nationally.  Its  acts  are  not 
inspired  by  the  spirit  of  American  nationality.  During  all 
its  history,  it  has  been  a  party  of  confederated  local  interests, 
mainly  solicitous  to  preserve  and  advance  those  interests  by 
the  exercise  of  such  power  as  it  could  acquire  in  the  National 
Government.  It  has  been  the  party  of  strict  construction 
of  the  Constitution  and  opposition  to  the  exercise  of  power  by 
the  National  Government.  It  has  been  the  party  of  state 
rights  and  jealousy  of  the  power  of  the  National  Government. 
At  every  step  of  the  expanding  power  of  our  nation  it  has 
played  the  part,  not  without  occasional  usefulness,  of  objec- 
tion and  resistance;  of  criticism  and  condemnation.  It 
denied  the  right  of  the  nation  to  make  internal  improvements. 
It  denied  the  right  of  the  nation  to  establish  a  national  bank. 
It  denied  the  right  of  the  nation  to  restrict  the  expansion  of 
slavery.  It  denied  the  right  of  the  nation  to  prevent  the 
secession  of  states.  It  denied  the  right  of  the  nation  to  issue 
greenbacks.  It  denied  the  right  of  the  nation  to  maintain  a 
protective  tariff.  Observe  the  language  of  the  Democratic 
platform  of  four  years  ago: 

We  declare  it  to  be  a  fundamental  principle  of  the  Democratic  party 
that  the  Federal  Government  under  the  Constitution  has  no  right  or  power 
to  impose  or  collect  tariff  duties  except  for  the  purpose  of  revenue. 

The  harsh  experience  of  reconstruction  imposed  by 
national  power  upon  the  South,  where  the  control  of  the 
Democratic  party  lies,  and  the  inveterate  habit  of  opposition 
to  government  acquired  during  the  long  years  of  Republican 


346  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

ascendancy,  have  preserved  and  emphasized  the  traditions 
and  sentiments  of  the  Democratic  party's  past.  And  now, 
as  ever,  the  first  thought,  the  first  solicitude,  the  inspiring 
motives,  are  to  be  found  in  then*  state  interests,  their  local 
interests,  their  neighborhood  interests;  second  to  these  and 
subordinate  to  them  is  their  acceptance  of  the  majestic 
conception  of  the  nation. 

When  the  Democratic  Congress  rejected  Secretary  Garri- 
son's plan  for  a  national  citizen  force  to  supplement  the 
regular  army  and  substituted  the  absurdly  inadequate  pro- 
vision for  bringing  in  the  National  Guard  of  the  states;  and 
when  the  President,  abandoning  his  former  position,  went 
with  the  Democratic  Congressmen,  and  the  Secretary 
resigned,  it  was  because  the  Democratic  party  clung  to  the 
local  privilege  of  the  appointment  of  the  officers  of  the  militia 
by  the  governors  of  their  states  and  was  unwilling  that  the 
officers  of  the  great  national  force  upon  which  we  must 
depend  if  war  comes,  should  be  appointed  by  the  National 
Executive.  That  attitude  would  have  been  impossible  if 
the  Democratic  party  had  been  actuated  and  inspired  by  the 
spirit  of  American  nationality  and  had  thought  first  of  the 
competency  and  power  of  the  nation  in  arms. 

When  Mr.  Wilson  and  Mr.  Bryan  permitted  their  Mexican 
policy  to  be  controlled  by  an  enthusiasm,  however  generous, 
for  the  political  fortunes  of  the  Indians  of  Mexico,  and  inter- 
fered in  the  internal  affairs  of  that  country  for  the  purpose, 
as  Mr.  Wilson  himself  has  told  us,  of  giving  the  eighty  per 
cent  "  a  look  in  "  in  the  government  of  that  country,  and 
turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  forty  thousand  American  citizens 
who  were  appealing  in  peril  and  distress  for  protection,  they 
somehow  failed  not  merely  in  judgment,  not  merely  through 
being  misinformed  and  deceived  as  to  the  true  nature  of  the 
civil  strife  in  Mexico  and  the  men  engaged  in  it,  but  they 
failed  in  the  spirit  of  their  work.  The  spirit  that  has  made 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1916  347 

America  great  and  free  was  not  in  them.  Listen  to  the 
words  of  Secretary  Evarts,  written  to  Minister  Foster  in 
Mexico  thirty-eight  years  ago: 

The  first  duty  of  a  government  is  to  protect  life  and  property.  This  is  a 
paramount  obligation.  For  this  governments  are  instituted,  and  govern- 
ments neglecting  or  failing  to  perform  it  become  worse  than  useless.  .  .  . 
Protection  in  fact  to  American  lives  and  property  is  the  sole  point  upon 
which  the  United  States  are  tenacious. 

The  imminent,  deadly  peril  of  the  Americans  in  Mexico 
was  not  a  mere  question  of  property  or  of  human  life.  It  was 
a  question  of  national  duty  and  honor  and  right  to  existence; 
for  a  nation  that  is  indifferent  to  the  oppression  and  destruc- 
tion of  its  citizens  anywhere  on  earth  has  already  begun  to 
die.  The  President  was  charged  by  his  office  and  his  oath 
to  perform  that  duty  for  the  nation  which  trusted  him.  But 
he  forgot  it.  The  oppressed  and  imperilled  Americans  were  to 
him  no  more  than  were  Mexican  peons.  He  was  indifferent 
to  them.  He  recognized  no  duty  towards  them.  He  inter- 
fered in  the  affairs  of  Mexico,  not  for  their  protection  but  in 
aid  of  what  he  supposed  to  be  a  movement  for  the  redistri- 
bution of  land  and  of  political  power  among  the  people  of 
Mexico.  The  Secretary  of  State  has  recorded  the  result  in 
the  letter  from  which  I  have  quoted.  The  President  is  proud 
of  this.  He  tells  of  it  himself.  How  does  it  happen  that  a 
sentimental  interest  in  an  uplift  movement  in  Mexico  was 
stronger  than  the  desire  to  perform  the  duty  of  our  nation 
towards  its  citizens  ?  It  was  because  the  spirit  of  American 
nationality  —  the  spirit  that  has  made  America  great  and 
honored  —  was  not  in  the  President  nor  his  Secretary  of 
State,  nor  the  Democratic  Congress  which  stood  behind 
them.  That  is  the  fundamental  reason  why  the  brave  words 
of  the  message  to  Germany  before  the  Lusitania  was  sunk 
failed  to  bite  into  the  consciousness  of  the  German  Govern- 
ment and  prevent  the  outrage.  That  is  the  real  reason  why 


348  POLITICAL  ADDRESSES 

the  arrogant  demand  of  the  railroad  brotherhoods  upon  the 
Government  of  the  United  States,  under  threat  of  injury, 
was  not  resented  and  repelled,  and  the  whole  force  of  this 
nation  rallied  in  defense  of  its  right  to  govern  itself  free  from 
compulsion. 

The  terrible  power  of  a  great  nation  in  earnest  clears  a 
way  for  itself  and  maintains  rights  and  accomplishes  just 
purposes  with  no  need  for  physical  force.  But  if  the  spirit 
is  wanting,  neither  fine  words  nor  skillful  argument  nor 
sentiment  can  take  its  place. 

The  most  precious  possession  of  the  American  people  is  not 
in  our  cities  and  palaces,  our  railroads  and  factories,  our  rich 
mines  and  fertile  farms;  for  we  may  have  all  these  and  lose 
our  own  soul.  The  supreme  necessity  of  our  life  is  the  spirit 
that  bore  up  our  fathers  in  their  poverty  and  struggles;  the 
spirit  that  inspired  them  in  the  great  empty  spaces  of  the 
new  world  with  the  conception  of  a  self-governing  republic, 
bound  together  by  the  universal  devotion  of  her  sons,  instinct 
with  the  high  and  unhesitating  courage  of  liberty,  honored 
for  justice,  leading  the  world  towards  the  better  things  of 
freedom.  The  spirit  is  not  gone.  It  has  been  sleeping.  It 
has  been  overlaid  by  wealth  and  prosperity  and  ease.  What 
America  now  needs  most  of  all  is  that  she  may  be  revealed 
again  in  the  hearts  of  her  people;  that  they  may  realize  their 
love  of  country;  that  their  patriotism  may  be  quickened; 
that  they  may  be  ready  again  to  live  for  her  honor  and  die 
for  her  duty  as  their  fathers  lived  and  died,  and  as  millions 
of  men  are  living  and  dying  now  for  their  countries  on  those 
sad  battlefields  of  the  old  world. 

I  have  lived  a  long  life,  and,  please  God,  will  die  in  the 
company  and  faith  of  the  Republican  party.  I  have  not  been 
blind  to  its  faults  nor  silent  about  them.  But  from  away 
back  among  the  dim  impressions  of  childhood  there  come  to 
me  now  and  then  the  voices  of  women  praying  that  God's 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1916  349 

infinite  wisdom  might  save  this  nation  for  freedom  through 
the  trials  of  bleeding  Kansas  and  Nebraska.  Among  the 
memories  of  half -comprehending  and  half -forgotten  boyhood 
are  the  sounds  of  marching  men  and  the  strong,  wrathful 
words  of  those  who  bore  up  the  hands  of  great-hearted 
Lincoln,  agonizing  for  his  country,  against  those  who  thought 
this  nation  not  worth  preserving.  During  all  the  years  since 
then,  whenever  the  stress  of  trial  pressed  through  the  surface 
of  prosperous  life  to  the  hard  substratum  of  conviction  and 
sense  of  national  duty,  I  have  found  the  men  whose  aroused 
conscience  and  patriotism  urged  them  to  stand  for  the  finan- 
cial honor,  the  industrial  independence,  the  moral  integrity, 
the  fidelity  to  duty  to  our  country,  seeking  their  object 
chiefly  through  the  organized  power  of  the  Republican  party. 
I  believe  in  spiritual  succession,  in  the  transmission  of  faith 
from  generation  to  generation,  in  the  ennoblement  of  rever- 
ence for  great  examples,  in  the  purification  of  life  by  ideals, 
in  the  love  of  country  that  subordinates  lesser  motives;  and 
I  believe  that  if  the  real  prosperity  and  honor  of  America  are 
to  be  preserved,  if  the  soul  of  America  is  to  be  saved  for  her 
mission  of  the  future,  it  must  be  through  the  leadership  of 
that  great  organization  which,  in  its  birth  and  its  life,  its 
victories  and  its  defeats,  its  convictions  and  its  impulses,  is 
and  always  has  been  national  to  the  core. 

And,  with  cheerful  hope,  I  recognize  as  the  true  inheritor 
and  interpreter  of  that  ancient  spirit  which  has  made  America 
what  she  is,  the  strong,  true  and  tried  American  gentleman 
whom  we  are  about  to  make  the  twenty-ninth  President  of 
the  United  States  —  Charles  Evans  Hughes. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Acton,  Lord,  British  historian,  72,  note. 

Africa,  21,  29,  36,  39,  54,  75. 

Airships,  17,  329. 

Alaska,  313. 

Alaskan  Boundary  dispute,  the,  200. 

Alaskan  islands,  the,  289. 

Albany,  New  York,  208,  272,  275,  308. 

Albany  investigations,  the,  266. 

Alexander  the  Great,  34. 

Algeciras,  Conference  at,  240. 

Allegheny  county,  Pennsylvania,  315. 

American  Bar  Association,  the,  resolu- 
tions of,  63  f.;  address  on  the  Ameri- 
can bar  and  the  war,  57-62;  address 
at  the  banquet  of,  169-182. 

American  Club,  the,  at  Petrograd,  ad- 
dress at,  136-141. 

American  Federation  of  Labor,  the,  120. 

American  Revolution,  the,  134,  177. 

American  Sugar  Refining  Company,  the, 
270,  271,  285. 

America's  present  needs,  address  on,  11- 
26. 

Anarchists,  156,  163,  175. 

Andrew,  John  Albion,  American  states- 
man, 279. 

Anthracite  coal  mines,  proposed  govern- 
ment ownership  of,  191. 

Anti-rebate  act,  the,  209,  212. 

Anti-trust  Law,  the,  280. 

Appomattox,  surrender  at  (1865),  325. 

Arabic,  the,  78. 

Arbitration,  71;  general  treaties  of, 
237  f. 

Arbuckle  Brothers,  271. 

Army,  the,  288,  329  f . 

Arthur,  Chester  Alan,  American  presi- 
dent, 279. 

Asia,  21,  24,  29,  36,  39,  54,  75. 

Assassination,  222  ff.,  226. 

Atlanta  penitentiary,  the,  272. 


Atlantic  Ocean,  the,  289,  329. 
Australasia,  21,  29. 
Australia,  232. 
Austria,  16,  21,  71,  95. 
Autocracy,  principle  of,  in  conflict  with 
democracy,  41,  60,  79,  95,  160. 


Balance  of  power,  the,  22,  71,  75. 

Balance  of  trade,  the,  290,  340. 

Balkans,  the,  26. 

Bank  deposits,  guarantee  of,  251-254. 

Bankers'  Club,  address  at  the,  81-86. 

Banking  and  Currency  Act,  the,  311. 

Barbarians,  overthrow  Rome,  34. 

Baser  motives  of  mankind,  appealed  to 
by  Germany,  49,  84  f . 

Battleship  fleet,  voyage  of  the,  around 
the  world,  232. 

Beef  Trust,  the,  210,  211  f. 

Behring  Sea  arbitration,  the,  289. 

Belgians,  22;  address  on  the  enslave- 
ment of  the,  3-9;  Belgian  relief  work, 
107,  119. 

Belgium,  20,  21,  25,  26,  36,  37,  40,  49, 
60,  68,  69,  71,  72,  73,  78,  107,  119,  179, 
181,  182. 

Berlin,  93. 

Bertron,  Samuel  R.,  member  of  the 
Special  Diplomatic  Mission  to  Russia, 
92. 

Bielostok,  224. 

Bill  of  Rights,  the,  292,  294. 

Bismarck,  Prince  Otto  von,  German 
statesman,  53,  76. 

Bissing,  Moritz  Ferdinand,  Baron  von, 
German  general,  4. 

Black  race,  the,  190. 

Blaine,  James  Gillespie,  American  states- 
man, 194,  279. 

Boers,  the,  50. 


353 


354 


INDEX 


Bonaparte,  Charles  Joseph,  secretary  of 

the  navy,  221. 
Bosporus,  the,  21,  22. 
Bourbons,  the,  38. 
Bourse  of  Moscow,  the,  address  before, 

127  ff. 

Boxer  rebellion,  the,  238. 
Boycott,     Chinese,     against     American 

goods,  238. 
Brandenburg,  74. 
Brazil,  193. 

British  colonies,  the,  50, 84. 
British  Guiana,  193. 
Brooklyn,  New  York,  305. 
Brooklyn  Cooperage  Company,  the,  270. 
Brusiloff,  Alexis,  Russian  general,  130, 

145. 
Bryan,     William    Jennings,     American 

secretary  of  state,  190,  198,  199,  323, 

346;     candidate   for   the   presidency, 

243-247. 
Buchanan,  Sir  George,  British  diplomat, 

134. 
Buchanan,  James,  American  president, 

188,  195. 

Budget  system,  the,  318  f. 
Buffalo,  New  York,  address  at,  185-201. 
Buffon,   Comte  de,   French   naturalist, 

72,  note. 

Bunker  Hill,  battle  of  (1775),  17. 
Bureau  of  Corporations,  the,  209,  213. 
Bureau  of  Mines,  the,  286. 
Butler,     Nicholas     Murray,     American 

educator,  265. 

Caesar,  223. 

California,  315. 

Cameronians,  the,  26. 

Campaign  funds,  use  of,  243  f . 

Canada,  194,  238. 

Cannon,  Joseph  Gurney,  American  con- 
gressman, 221. 

Canton,  Ohio,  185. 

Capitol,  the,  17,  198. 

Caribbean  Sea,  the,  22,  29,  30,  36,  40,  53, 
76,  239. 

Carranza,  Venustiano,  Mexican  chief, 
333,  336,  337. 


Cattaraugus  county,  New  York,  305. 

Caucasus,  the,  146. 

Cavell,  Edith,  English  nurse,  181. 

Central  America,  22,  36,  240. 

Certainty,  value  of,  in  business,  128  f. 

Chamber  of  Commerce  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  address  at  the,  161-167. 

Charles  I,  king  of  England,  223. 

Chesapeake  Bay,  17. 

Chicago,  185,  257,  277,  330. 

Chicago,  Milwaukee,  and  St.  Paul  Rail- 
way Company,  the,  271. 

Chicago,  Rock  Island,  and  Pacific  Rail- 
way Company,  the,  271. 

Child  labor,  236. 

Children's  Bureau,  the,  286. 

China,  23,  34,  200,  238,  239. 

Chinese  students,  to  be  educated  in  the 
United  States,  238. 

Choate,  Joseph  Hodges,  American  lawyer 
and  diplomat,  220,  265. 

Cincinnati,  Ohio,  339. 

Civil  War,  the,  15,  16,  31,  47,  165,  177, 
189,  195,  196,  283,  324. 

Cleveland,  Grover,  American  president, 
196-199,  222,  258. 

Coal  combination,  the,  211. 

Coal  lands,  234  f.,  287. 

Cohen,  Julius  Henry,  57. 

Coliseum  at  Chicago,  address  at  the,  65- 
80. 

Colonies,  contention  for,  75  f . 

Columbus,  Christopher,  323. 

Common  law,  the,  209. 

Congress  of  Constructive  Patriotism, 
address  at  the,  11-26. 

Conscription,  value  of,  16. 

Conservation  of  natural  resources,  the, 
280,  287. 

Constituent  Assembly,  proposed,  in  Rus- 
sia, 90,  129,  140. 

Constitution,  the,  65  f.,  70,  128, 188,  189, 
190  f.,  195,  243,  244,  245,  263,  290,  291, 
292,  293,  294,  298,  345. 

Cor  day,  Charlotte,  French  heroine,  223. 

Corporate  wealth,  increase  of,  205. 

Corporations,  political  problems  con- 
nected with,  205-214. 


INDEX 


355 


Cortez,  Hernando,  17. 

Cossacks,  175. 

Council  of  Ministers,  the,  address  to, 
98-101. 

Crane,  Charles  Richard,  member  of  the 
Special  Diplomatic  Mission  to  Russia, 
66. 

Criminals,  release  of,  in  Russia,  163  f . 

Crisp,  Charles  Frederick,  American 
congressman,  247. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  223. 

Cuba,  193,  199,  231,  239. 

Cushing,  the,  327. 

Cutting,  Robert  Fulton,  American  phil- 
anthropist, 220. 

Czolgosz,  assassin,  223,  224. 

Daniels,  Josephus,  secretary  of  the  navy, 
323. 

Dardanelles,  the,  30. 

Debased  currency,  195  f . 

Decadence,  occasioned  by  luxury,  8,  11, 
34, 180,  348. 

Declaration  of  Independence,  the,  20, 
89,  94,  102,  133  f. 

Demagogue  in  politics,  address  on  the, 
203-226. 

Democracy,  principle  of,  in  conflict  with 
autocracy.  41,  60,  85,  95,  160. 

Democratic  party,  the,  41  ft".;  the  cam- 
paign of  1904,  185-201;  of  1906,  203- 
226;  of  1908,  227-258;  of  1910,  259- 
275;  opposes  Republican  measures, 
282,  283,  286,  288  f.;  the  campaign  of 
1914,  301-322;  of  1916,  323-349. 

Denmark,  237. 

Denver  convention,  the,  245. 

Department  of  Agriculture,  the,  233-236. 

Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor, 
the,  236,  290. 

Department  of  Justice,  the,  212,  233,  284. 

Department  of  State,  the,  290,  330. 

Department  of  the  Interior,  the,  233  f .. 
235. 

Deportation  of  the  Belgians,  4. 

Dewey,  George,  American  admiral,  53. 

Dick  Act,  the,  15. 

Dietrich,  German  admiral,  53. 


Dingley  Tariff  Act,  the,  194,  238,  250. 
Discussion  as  related  to  the  war,  address 

on,  65-80. 

Disraeli  (Earl  of  Beaconsfield),  223. 
District  of  Columbia,  the,  211. 
Dix,  John  Alden,  governor  of  New  York, 

269,  272-275. 
Dolphin,  the,  335. 
Drug  Trust,  the,  210. 
Duma,  Russian,  89  ff.,  162,  170. 
Duncan,  James,  member  of  the  Special 

Diplomatic  Mission  to  Russia,  92,  120. 
Dye-stuffs.  338,  340. 

Eldon,  Lord,  British  jurist,  209. 
Elevator  combination,  the,  210. 
Elkins  anti-rebate  law,  the,  209,  212. 
Employers'  Liability  act,  the,  214,  285. 
England,  16,  21,  22,  31,  37,  38,  42,  43,  49, 

50,  72,  75,  79,  84,  107,  119,  156,  182, 

209,  223,  237,  324,  338.     See  Great 

Britain. 

English  Channel,  the,  21. 
Erie  Railroad,  the,  257. 
Europe,  20,  24,  29,  31,  35,  36,  37,  39,  40, 

61,  64,  71,  72,  75,  78,  84,  94,  143,  144, 

177.  223,  240,  329,  337.  340,  341. 
Evarts,    William    Maxwell,    American 

secretary  of  state,  347. 
Extra-constitutional    authority,    revolt 

against,  317  f. 

Fairbanks,   Charles   Warren,   American 

vice-president,  221. 
F daba,  the,  78,  327. 
Federal    contractors'    eight-hour    labor 

law,  the,  214. 
Federalist,  The,  294. 
Federal  Reserve  Board,  the,  313. 
Fertilizer  Trust,  the,  211. 
Fiat  money,  195. 
Filipinos,  the,  186  f.,  199  f.,  231. 
Finland,  89. 
Flame  throwers,  17. 
Flanders,  52. 

Flax  industry,  the,  in  Russia,  178. 
Flint,  Charles  Ranlett,  Mr.  Root's  letter 

to,  95  f . 


356 


INDEX 


Florida,  14,  189. 

Forest  policy,  234. 

Foster,  John  Watson,  American  diplo- 
mat, 347. 

France,  13,  16,  21,  26,  30,  31,  37,  38,  42, 
43,  52,  68,  69,  72,  73,  75,  77,  84,  107, 
119,  147,  156,  173,  179,  182,  223,  237, 
238,  324. 

Francis,  David  Rowland,  American 
diplomat,  91,  98. 

Fraternization,  48,  131. 

Fraudulent  land  entries,  235. 

Frederick  II  (the  Great),  king  of  Prussia, 
cynical  philosophy  of,  72  f.,  74,  75, 
81  f.,  84. 

Free  coinage  of  silver,  196,  283. 

Fugitive  Slave  Law,  the,  189. 

Fur  seals,  289. 

Gambling,  229. 

Garfield,  James  Abram,  American  presi- 
dent, 279,  303. 

Garrison,  Lindley  Miller,  secretary  of 
war,  331. 

Gas,  in  warfare,  17. 

General  Council  of  Workmen's  and 
Soldiers'  Delegates,  the,  118. 

General  Staff  Headquarters,  address  at, 
130  f. 

Genghis  Khan,  73,  159. 

Geological  Survey,  the,  235,  287. 

Gerard,  James  Watson,  American  diplo- 
mat, 30  f . 

Germany,  16,  21,  47  f .,  49-55,  60  f.,  65, 
84  f.,  95, 110,  114  f.,  127,  144,  145,  147, 
150  ff.,  156  f.,  159,  166,  173,  180,  238; 
enslaves  the  Belgians,  3-9;  not  im- 
pressed by  President  Wilson's  notes, 
326-329,  347;  makes  war  on  America, 
27-38;  declaration  of  war  against, 
39-44. 

Gettysburg,  battle  of  (1863),  17. 

Gilder,  Richard  Watson,  magazine  edi- 
tor, 221. 

Glennon,  Rear-Admiral  James  Henry, 
member  of  the  Special  Diplomatic 
Mission  to  Russia,  92. 

Goebel,  William,  222. 


Gold  standard,  the,  196. 

Gorman,  Arthur  Pue,  American  senator, 
198,  199. 

Grant,  Ulysses  Simpson,  American  presi- 
dent and  general,  279,  324. 

Grazing  lands,  public,  unlawfully  en- 
closed, 235. 

Great  Britain,  14,  71,  134,  173,  193,  289. 
See  England. 

Great  Lakes,  the,  238. 

Greenbacks,  195,  345. 

Grey,  Sir  Edward,  British  minister,  49. 

Gulflight,  the,  78,  327. 

Hague,  The,  conferences  at,  71;  First, 
in  1899,  5;  Second,  in  1907,  237. 

Hague  Convention,  the,  4  f . 

Hague  Tribunal,  the,  200,  238. 

Haiti,  53. 

Hale  v.  Henkel,  217. 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  American  states- 
man, 206,  294. 

Hapsburgs,  the,  96. 

Harlan,  John  Marshall,  American  jurist, 
294. 

Harriman,  Edward  Henry,  American 
financier,  272. 

Harrison,  Benjamin,  American  president, 
193,  279. 

Harvester  Company,  the,  285. 

Havana,  222. 

Hay,  John,  secretary  of  state,  221. 

Hayes,  Rutherford  Birchard,  American 
president,  279. 

Hearst,  William  Randolph,  newspaper 
publisher,  204,  215-226. 

Highlands,  the,  26. 

Hoar,  George  Frisbie,  American  senator, 
279,  303. 

Hohenzollerns,  the,  72,  74,  96. 

Holland,  75. 

Honduras,  193. 

Hoover,  Herbert  Clark,  107,  119. 

House  of  Representatives,  rules  of  the, 
245  ff. 

Huerta,  Victoriano,  Mexican  revolu- 
tionary president,  332,  334-337. 

Hughes,  Charles  Evans,  address  of,  45; 


INDEX 


357 


governor  of  New  York,  206  f .,  208,  213, 

215,  218,  225,  227,  265,  266,  267,  275; 

candidate  for  the  presidency,  349. 
Huguenots,  the,  26. 
Humbert-Bazile,     French     writer,     72, 

note. 
Huppuch,  W.  A.,  274. 

Ice  combination,  the,  211. 

Illinois,  257. 

Imperialism,  254  f . 

Income  tax,  284,  312. 

Indiana,  199. 

Indianapolis,  President  Wilson's  speech 

at,  333,  334. 
Indians,  American,  14,  17;    of  Mexico, 

346. 
Industrial  organization,  importance  of, 

18. 
Industrial  Workers  of  the  WTorld,  the, 

156,  163,  174. 

Initiative  and  referendum,  the,  318. 
Insurance  investigation,  the,  206  f . 
International  law,  see  Law  of  nations. 
Internationals,  the,  156,  157. 
Interstate  Commerce  Commission,  the, 

191,  272,  284,  286,  313,  343. 
Iowa,  315. 
Irish,  the,  143. 

Irrigation,  190,  191,  200,  234,  235. 
Ishii,  Viscount,  Japanese  diplomat,  81, 

85,86. 

Isthmian  Canal,  the,  194. 
Italia  Irredenta,  49,  179. 
Italy,  26,  37,  49,  79,  84,  107,  119,  156, 

173,  182,  237. 

Jackson,  Andrew,  American  president, 
188. 

Japan,  30,  78,  238,  239,  240,  289;  ad- 
dress on  Japan  and  the  United  States, 
81-86. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  American  president, 
256  f. 

Jerome,  William  Travers,  American 
lawyer,  220. 

Johnson,  Andrew,  American  president, 
198. 


Judicial  power,  importance  of  the,  262  f ., 
320  f.;  reform  needed  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  justice,  321. 

Justice,  divine  principle  of,  293. 

Kansas,  189,  349. 

Kent,  James,  American  jurist,  209. 

Kerensky,  Alexander,  Russian  minister, 
48,  119,  132,  176. 

Kishineff,  224. 

Knox,  Philander  Chase,  American  sena- 
tor, 221. 

Kosciusko,  Tadeusz,  Polish  patriot,  142, 

Kultur,  74. 

Land  thieves,  233. 

Lane,  Franklin  Knight,  secretary  of  the 

interior,  336. 
Las  Cases,  Comte  de,  French  historian, 

94. 

Latin  America,  239. 
Law  of  nations,  the,  52,  71,  72,  75,  106, 

151,  328. 

Leadership,  necessity  of,  317. 
Lehigh  Valley  Railroad,  the,  257. 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  American  president, 

7,  41,  42,  195,  206,  224,  227,  279,  295, 

323,  349. 
Lind,  John,  personal  representative  of 

President  Wilson,  334. 
Lotteries,  233. 
Louisiana,  13,  189. 
Louis    Napoleon,    emperor    of    France, 

324  f. 

Low,  Seth,  American  educator,  265. 
Lower  California,  30,  36. 
Lumber  combination,  the,  210. 
Lusitania,  the,  78,  326,  327,  328,  347. 
Luxemburg,  71. 
Luxury,  decadence  occasioned  by,  8,  11, 

34,  153,  348. 
Lvoff,  Prince  George,  Russian  minister, 

123,  133. 

McAdoo,   William   Gibbs,   secretary  of 

the  treasury,  323. 
McClellan,  George  Brinton,  mayor  of 

New  York,  221. 


358 


INDEX 


McCormick,  Cyrus  Hall,  member  of  the 
Special  Diplomatic  Mission  to  Russia, 
92. 

McKinley,  William,  American  president, 
185,  188,  194,  198,  219  f.,  221,  222  ff., 
226,  232,  279,  280,  283,  323. 

McKinley  Tariff,  the  (1890),  193. 

Madero,  Francisco,  Mexican  revolu- 
tionary president,  332. 

Madison,  James,  American  president,  17. 

Madison  Square  Garden,  address  at,  33- 
38. 

Maine,  315. 

Manchus,  the,  34. 

Manhattan  Casino,  New  York,  address 
at,  259-275. 

Manila,  200. 

Manila  Bay,  53. 

Mann,  Horace,  American  educator,  31. 

Mansfield,  Lord,  British  jurist,  209. 

Marat,  Jean  Paul,  French  revolutionist, 
223. 

Marbury  c.  Madison,  295. 

Mark  of  Brandenburg,  the,  74. 

Marne,  battle  of  the  (1914),  330. 

Marshall,  John,  American  jurist,  206, 
209,  263,  294,  295. 

Maryland,  315. 

Mason,  James  Murray,  Confederate  com- 
missioner, 324. 

Massachusetts,  315,  319. 

Matintes  Royales,  the,  72,  note. 

Maximilian,  emperor  of  Mexico,  324. 

Maximum  and  minimum  tariff  rates,  290. 

Meat  combination,  the,  210. 

Meat  Inspection  act,  the,  213,  236,  280. 

Meneval,  Baron  de,  private  secretary  to 
Napoleon,  72,  note. 

Mercier,  Cardinal,  8  f . 

Mexican  War,  the,  14,  189. 

Mexico,  17,  21,  30,  78, 189,  200,  237,  240, 
324,  325,  326,  344;  failure  of  President 
Wilson's  policy  in,  331-337,  346  f. 

Michael,  Russian  grand  duke,  90. 

Militia,  training  of  the,  288. 

Militia  Act,  the,  of  1792,  12  f . 

Milukoff,  Paul,  Russian  minister,  91  f. 

Milwaukee,  Wisconsin,  330. 


Milwaukee  Refrigerator  Transit  case, 
the,  213. 

Mission  to  Russia,  American,  87-182. 

Mississippi  River,  the,  190  f. 

Mississippi  Valley,  the,  191. 

Missouri,  189,  257,  338,  340. 

Mitchel,  John  Purroy,  mayor  of  New 
York,  45,  154. 

Monetary  Commission,  the,  283  f . 

Monroe,  James,  American  president,  21. 

Monroe  Doctrine,  the,  21  f .,  26,  30,  36, 
40,  53,  71,  75  f .,  77,  324. 

Morse,  Charles  Wyman,  American  finan- 
cier, 272. 

Morton,  Oliver  Perry,  American  states- 
man, 279. 

Moscow,  addresses  at,  109-129. 

Moscow  Duma,  the,  address  before,  111- 
116. 

Moscow  People's  Bank,  the,  178;  ad- 
dress at,  125  f. 

Mott,  John  R.,  member  of  the  Special 
Diplomatic  Mission  to  Russia,  92. 

Murphy,  Charles  F.,  Tammany  leader, 
216,  218,  267,  268,  274. 

Murray,  William,  see  Mansfield,  Lord. 

Nadault  de  Buffon,  Henri,  73,  note. 

Napoleon,  13,  72,  note,  94. 

Napoleon  III,  see  Louis  Napoleon. 

Napoleonism,  223. 

Narodny  Bank,  the,  125  f.,  178. 

National  Arts  Club,  the,  154. 

National  Bank  act,  the,  256. 

National    defense,    delay    of   President 

Wilson's  administration  in  preparing 

for,  326-331,  346. 
National  evolution,   principle  of,   20  f ., 

29  f .,  36,  76. 
National  Guard,  the,  14  f .,  16,  23,  330, 

331,  346. 
National  Institute  of  Art  and  Letters, 

the,  96,  97. 

National  rights,  how  defended,  35. 
National  Security  League,  the,  11. 
National  Sugar  Refining  Company,  the, 

271. 
Naturalization  frauds,  233. 


INDEX 


359 


Navy,  the,  288,  329,  330. 

Navy  Department,  the,  232. 

Nazuvaeskaya,  address  at,  147. 

Nebraska,  189,  349. 

Nekrasoff,  Nicholas,  Russian  minister,  48. 

"  Nervous  and  excited,"  829. 

Netherlands,  the,  237. 

Newfoundland  Fisheries,  the,  238. 

New  Jersey,  211,  315. 

Newlands  Irrigation  Act,  the,  191. 

New  Mexico,  331. 

New  Nationalism,  the,  262  ff . 

Newspapers,  traitorous,  52,  177. 

New  York,  city,  218,  305. 

New  York,  state,  185,  191,  225,  227; 
address  on  the  state  campaign  of  1910, 
259-275;  address  at  the  Republican 
state  convention  of  1914,  301-322. 

New  York  Central  Railroad,  the,  271. 

New  York  City  Hall,  address  at,  154- 
160. 

New  York  Journal,  quoted,  219-224. 

New  York,  New  Haven,  and  Hartford 
Railroad,  the,  213,  256. 

New  York  Republican  Club,  address 
before  the,  39-44. 

New  Zealand,  232. 

Nicaragua,  193. 

Nicholas  II,  emperor  of  Russia,  abdica- 
tion of,  89  f . 

North  America,  21,  54,  55. 

North  Atlantic  Coast  Fisheries  Arbitra- 
tion, the,  238,  289. 

Northeastern  boundary  controversy,  14. 

Northern  Securities  Company,  the,  210, 
211,  221. 

Norway,  237. 

Office,  desire  for,  as  a  cohesive  force,  258. 

Oklahoma,  211. 

'  Open  door,'  the,  200. 

Oregon  boundary  settlement,  the,  14. 

Oregon  country,  the,  152. 

Orient,  the,  29,  187,  200. 

Pacific  Ocean,  the,  22,  81,  85,  166,  232, 

289. 
Pacific  railroads,  the,  256. 


Pacifist  meetings,  17'?. 

Pakrovsky,  Russian  minister,  166. 

Panama,  22,  195. 

Panama,  Isthmus  of,  231,  289. 

Panama  Canal,  the,  22,  30,  36,  40,  53,  76, 

186,  195,  199,  231,  239,  248,  289. 
Pan  American  Conference,  Third,  at  Rio 

de  Janeiro,  239. 
Panic  of  1907,  the,  230  f . 
Paper   manufacturers,   combination   of, 

210. 

Parcel-post  conventions,  232. 
Paris,  223. 
Parker,  Alton  Brooks,  American  jurist, 

199,  221,  243,  272. 
Parties,    government    by,    189,    277  f., 

306  ff.;    address  on  the  duty  of  the 

Republican  party  in  the  war,  39-44. 
Partisanship,  political,  42. 
Payne-Aldrich  bill,  the,  282,  290. 
Peace,  not  maintained  by  the  surrender 

of  just  rights,  325. 
Pennsylvania,  191,  315. 
Pennsylvania  Railroad,  the,  257. 
Peonage,  233. 
Perm,  address  before  Russian  soldiers  at, 

145  f. 

Pershing,  John  Joseph,  American  gen- 
eral, 137. 
Persia,  34,  146. 
Persia,  the,  78. 
Petrograd,  94,  117,  156,  158,  162,  170, 

175;  addresses  at,  98-108,  132-144. 
Philippine  Islands,  the,  186  f.,  199. 
Philippine    Legislative    Assembly,    the, 

231. 

Pious  Fund,  the,  200. 
Place  in  the  sun,  Germany's,  76. 
Poland,  73,  89;  address  on,  142  S. 
Poles,  143,  144. 
Population,  increase  of,  29. 
Populist  Democrats,  198. 
Populistic  doctrines,  190. 
Porto  Rico,  193. 
Portsmouth,  Treaty  of,  240. 
Portugal,  75,  237. 
Postal  savings  system,  253  f.,  288. 
Post  Office  Department,  the,  232. 


360 


INDEX 


Princeton,  New  Jersey,  222. 

Principles  of  democracy,  address  on  the, 
132-135. 

Progressive  party,  the,  disappearance  of, 
315  f. 

Prussia,  39,  74,  75,  76. 

Public  debt,  the,  197. 

Public  domain,  offenses  against  the,  235. 

Public  opinion,  power  of,  6. 

Public  Service  Commission  laws,  269. 

Pulaski,  Casimir,  Polish-American  gen- 
eral, 142. 

Pure  food  law,  the,  236,  280,  286. 

Quebec,  50. 

Railroad  brotherhoods,  the,  increase  of 
wages  for,  341-344,  348. 

Railroad-rates  act,  the,  213,  279. 

Railroad  employes,  orders  of,  286. 

Railroads,  government  direction  of,  107, 
119;  government  ownership  of,  255  ff. 

Railway  mails,  weighing  of,  232. 

Rebates,  secret,  200,  207,  212,  229,  284. 

Reciprocity,  193  f. 

Red  Cross,  the,  119. 

Reed,  Thomas  Brackett,  American 
congressman,  221  f.,  246,  247. 

Regeneration,  power  of,  in  the  Russian 
character,  50. 

Reign  of  law,  the,  35. 

Republican  party,  duty  of  the,  39-44: 
the  campaign  of  1904,  185-201;  of 
1906,  203-226;  of  1908,  227-258;  of 
1910,  259-275;  address  as  chairman 
of  the  Republican  national  conven- 
tion at  Chicago,  June  18,  1912,  277- 
295;  speech  notifying  President  Taft 
of  his  renomination,  297  ff . ;  the  cam- 
paign of  1914,  301-322;  of  1916,  323- 
349. 

Retail  Grocers'  Association,  the,  210. 

Riga,  146. 

Rio  de  Janeiro,  239. 

Roberts,  Lord,  British  general,  49. 

Rocky  Mountains,  the,  210. 

Rodzianko,  president  of  the  Russian 
Duma,  138, 


Romanoff  dynasty,  the,  overthrow  of, 
89  ff. 

Rome,  34,  54,  74,  115. 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  American  presi- 
dent, 76,  185,  188,  207  f.,  222,  225, 
226,  227,  232,  242,  243,  249,  259,  260, 
261,  262,  264,  265  f.,  270,  279,  280, 
284,  285,  315. 

Rumania,  74,  79. 

Rural  free  delivery  of  mails,  200,  232, 
247  f.,  288. 

Russell,  Charles  Edward,  member  of  the 
Special  Diplomatic  Mission  to  Russia, 
92. 

Russia,  21,  22,  26,  30,  31,  37,  42,  43,  71, 
72,  79,  240,  289;  the  American  mis- 
sion to  Russia,  87-182. 

Russian-American  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce, address  before  the,  105-108. 

Safety-appliance  law,  the,  214,  286. 

Saint  Lawrence  county,  New  York,  305. 

St.  Louis,  Missouri,  210,  257,  330. 

St.  Louis  convention,  the  (1904),  185. 

Salt  combination,  the,  210. 

Salute  to  the  flag,  demanded,  335  ff. 

San  Domingo,  193,  239  f. 

San  Francisco,  238. 

San  Jos6  scale,  the,  250. 

San  Salvador,  island,  323. 

Sans  Souci,  72,  note. 

Saratoga,  battles  of  (1777),  17. 

Saratoga  convention,  the,  264. 

Saratoga  Springs,  New  York,  57,  63,  227, 
301. 

Scandinavians,  143. 

Schurman,  Jacob  Gould,  university  presi- 
dent, 265. 

Scotland,  26. 

Scott,  Major-General  Hugh  Lenox, 
member  of  the  Special  Diplomatic 
Mission  to  Russia,  92. 

"  Scrap  of  paper,"  40. 

Seattle,  address  at,  149-153. 

Sedan,  battle  of  (1870),  325. 

Senate,  the,  24. 

Senators,  direct  election  of,  244  f . 

Servia,  20,  21,  25,  26,  60,  71,  72,  73,  181. 


INDEX 


361 


Seward,  William  Henry,  American 
statesman,  279. 

Shepard,  Edward  Morse,  American 
lawyer,  220. 

Sheridan,  Philip  Henry,  American  gen- 
eral, 324. 

Sherman,  James  Schoolcraft,  American 
congressman  and  vice-president,  215. 

Sherman,  William  Tecumseh,  American 
general,  324. 

Sherman  Act,  the,  284. 

Shiloh,  battle  of  (1862),  17. 

Short  ballot,  the,  319  f. 

Skene,  case  of,  267  f . 

Slavery,  73,  293. 

Slidell,  John,  Confederate  commissioner, 
324. 

Social  Associated  Committees  of  Mos- 
cow, the,  address  before,  109  f . 

Socialists,  156,  163,  170,  171,  172  ff. 

South  Africa,  50. 

South  America,  21,  22,  29,  36,  54  f.,  219, 
232,  257. 

South  Dakota,  315. 

Southern  Pacific  Railroad  Company, 
the,  214. 

South  Seas,  the,  54. 

Spain,  14,  75,  193,  222,  237. 

Spirit  of  America,  need  of  arousing,  348. 

Spiritual  succession,  349. 

Standard  Oil  combination,  the,  211, 
284  f. 

Standard  Wall  Paper  Company,  the, 
273  f. 

State  exigencies,  supposed  superior  to 
the  rules  of  morality  and  to  individual 
rights,  19  f.,  54,  72. 

Statesmanship,  principles  of,  72. 

Steel  Corporation,  the,  285. 

Stimson,  Henry  Lewis,  candidate  for 
governor  of  New  York,  261  f .,  265,  269, 
270  ff. 

Stone,  William  Joel,  American  senator, 
338. 

Story,  Joseph,  American  jurist,  294. 

Straus,  Oscar  Solomon,  American  diplo- 
mat, 154. 

"  Strict  accountability,"  326. 


Submarines,  17,  52,  107,  119,  131,  137, 

329. 
Sumner,  Charles,  American  statesman, 

279. 
Supreme  Court,  the,  210,  213,  214,  257, 

284,  285. 
Supreme  Court,  the,  of  New  York  State, 

218. 

Sussex,  the,  78. 
Sutherland,  George,  American  senator, 

169. 

Sweden,  237. 
Switzerland,  237. 

Taft,  William  Howard,  American  presi- 
dent, 200,  242,  249,  255,  257,  259,  260, 
261,  265,  266,  270,  275,  332,  333,  338; 
review  of  his  administration,  279-290; 
speech  notifying  him  of  his  renomina- 
tion,  297  ff. 

Taggart,  Thomas,  chairman  of  the  Dem- 
ocratic National  Committee,  221. 

Tammany  Hall,  215,  216  f.,  218,  267, 
268,  269. 

Tampico,  335. 

Tariff,  protective,  191  ff.,  250  f.,  256, 
272  ff.,  280,  310  f.,  337-341. 

Tariff  Commission,  the,  310,  338. 

Tariff  Commission  bill,  the,  282,  310  f., 
338. 

Terestchenko,  Michael,  Russian  min- 
ister, 48;  address  of,  101-104. 

Texas,  331. 

Thirty  Years'  War,  the,  6. 

Thomas,  Augustus,  Mr.  Root's  letter  to, 
96  f. 

Thompson,  James,  Republican  candi- 
date for  state  comptroller  in  New 
York,  267. 

Tierra  del  Fuego,  29. 

Tilden,  Samuel  Jones,  American  states- 
man, 206. 

Timber  thieves,  233. 

Tobacco  Trust,  the,  211,  284. 

Tokyo,  Japan,  239. 

"  Too  proud  to  fight,"  328. 

Towne,  Charles  Arnette,  American 
congressman,  220. 


362 


INDEX 


Trade  Commission,  the,  313. 

Treason,  49,  50,  52,  68,  69,  177. 

Treasury  Department,  the,  284. 

Treaties:  Fur  Seal,  5289;  with  Japan, 
289  f.;  Portsmouth,  240;  Webster- 
Ashburton  (1842),  14;  of  Westphalia 
(1648),  82;  general  treaties  of  arbitra- 
tion, 237  f . 

Triple  Alliance,  the,  49. 

Troy,  New  York,  267. 

Tseratelli,  Russian  minister,  48. 

Turkey,  95. 

Tyler,  John,  American  president,  198. 

U-boats,  see  Submarines. 

Underwood,  Oscar  W.,  American  con- 
gressman, 340. 

Underwood  tariff,  the,  340  f . 

Union  League  Club,  address  before  the 
(March  20,  1917),  27-32;  (August  15, 
1917),  45-55. 

United  States  Bank,  the,  189. 

United  States  of  America,  the,  and  the 
war,  3-86;  sends  a  Special  Diplomatic 
Mission  to  Russia,  87-182;  political 
campaigns  from  1904  to  1916,  183- 
349. 

Universal  Brotherhood  of  the  Proletariat, 
proposed,  172. 

Universal  military  service,  the  original 
theory  of  the  American  government, 
12  f.;  occultation  of,  13  f.;  need  of, 
63. 

Universities,  German,  75. 

Ural  Mountains,  the,  166. 

Utica,  New  York,  address  at,  203-226. 

Venezuela,  53,  76,  200,  239. 

Vera  Cruz,  seizure  of,  335,  336. 

Villa,  Francisco,  Mexican  chief,  333,  336, 

337. 
Vladivostok,  94,  171. 

'  Wall  Street  Cabinet,'  the,  220. 
War  Department,  the,  231. 
War  Industries  Committee  at  Moscow, 
the,  address  before,  117-122. 


War  of  1812,  the,  16. 

Washington,  17,  28,  62,  78, 121,  217,  243, 
257,  274,  275,  308. 

Washington,  George,  American  presi- 
dent, 224. 

Watered  stock,  208. 

Webster,  Daniel,  American  statesman, 
206. 

Western  Transit  Company,  the,  270  f . 

West  Indies,  the,  22,  193. 

Westphalia,  Peace  of  (1648),  82. 

West  Shore  Railroad,  the,  256. 

West  Virginia,  315. 

Whig  party,  the,  198. 

White  House,  the,  17. 

Wholesale  Grocers'  Association,  the,  210. 

William  II,  emperor  of  Germany,  53,  73, 
76,  79. 

Williams,  Frank  Martin,  state  engineer 
of  New  York,  267. 

Williams,  John  Sharp,  American  con- 
gressman, 221. 

Wilson,  Woodrow,  American  president, 
9,  24  f.,  28,  33,  39,  41,  42,  65,  66,  68, 
94,  98,  100,  101,  154;  review  of  his 
first  administration,  323-348;  his  ad- 
dress to  the  Provisional  Government 
of  Russia,  92  ff . 

Wilson  tariff  law,  the,  197,  251,  273. 

Winter  Palace,  the,  175. 

Woodruff,  Timothy  Lester,  lieutenant- 
governor  of  New  York,  220. 

Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Delegates,  162, 
171. 

Wright,  Luke  E.,  Philippine  commis- 
sioner, 200. 

Yellow  journals,  215,  218-226. 
Yorktown,  capture  of  (1781),  17. 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  the, 
119. 

Zemstvos,  164,  178. 

Zemstvo    Union,    the,    address    before, 

123  f. 
Zimmennann,  Alfred,  German  minister, 

30. 


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